Israel has released 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of an initial phase in a long-awaited agreement with Hamas, the Israeli prison service announced.
Earlier on Sunday, three Israeli hostages were freed by Hamas and handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza City. The women, identified as 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher, Emily Damari, 28, who holds dual British-Israeli citizenship, and 24-year-old Romi Gonen, were later transferred to the Israeli military. They are currently receiving medical care at a Tel Aviv hospital, where they remain in stable condition.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas has pledged to release one Israeli hostage for every 30 Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel. The arrangement marks a fragile but hopeful step toward easing tensions in the region.
The ceasefire, which faced last-minute delays, brought temporary relief to the war-torn area. However, the joy of the truce was overshadowed as many Palestinians returned to scenes of destruction, finding their homes reduced to rubble.
“Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End?
79% of all conflict pauses were interrupted when Israel killed a Palestinian, while only 8% were interrupted by Palestinian attacks (the remaining 13% were interrupted by both sides on the same day).
By Nancy Kanwisher, Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
“As shown in Figure 2, this analysis shows that it is overwhelmingly Israel that kills first after a pause in the conflict: 79% of all conflict pauses were interrupted when Israel killed a Palestinian, while only 8% were interrupted by Palestinian attacks (the remaining 13% were interrupted by both sides on the same day). In addition, we found that this pattern — in which Israel is more likely than Palestine to kill first after a conflict pause — becomes more pronounced for longer conflict pauses. Indeed, of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96%, and it unilaterally interrupted 100% of the 14 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than 9 days.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reigniting-violence-how-d_b_155611
https://youtu.be/bp-LbSAJf5g?feature=shared
Jeffey Sachs.