Gaza: Hostage and Prisoner Swaps Continue

Facts

• Hostage and prisoner swaps continued between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas Tuesday, with Israel claiming that 10 hostages had been handed over from Hamas and 30 Palestinian prisoners slated for imminent release by Israeli officials. Intelligence agencies from Israel and the US arrived in Doha for talks with Qatari officials alongside Egypt's top spy official.¹
• This comes as, on Monday night, Hamas released 11 Israeli hostages, including French, German, and Argentinian dual nationals, in exchange for 33 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the last batch of exchanges as part of the initially agreed upon temporary truce. The truce was extended for another two days late on Monday.²
• Qatar, which has mediated between Israel and Hamas, said that it hopes to see the truce increased further than the two-day extension. A human rights group said that Israel is still holding another 60 Palestinian women, most of whom were arrested after Hamas's Oct. 7 surprise attack.¹
• Meanwhile, in the West Bank, violence has rapidly escalated, with Israeli forces killing eight Palestinians from Sunday to Monday. Five of those killed were during an Israeli raid into Jenin, a focal point of Israeli operations in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed. Since Oct. 7, over 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers.³
• Lebanese media reported on Tuesday that Israel shelled the outskirts of the border town of Aita al-Shaab; the Israeli military said it was not aware of the incident. Fighting along the border between Lebanon and Israel has largely halted since it came into effect [though Lebanon's Hezbollah was not an official party to the temporary truce].⁴
• Gaza's health ministry reports that the conflict has left almost 15K people — the majority of whom were women and children — in the Gaza Strip dead, while the official Israeli death toll stands at 1.2K people.⁵

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²The Guardian, ³BBC News, ⁴Reuters and ⁵Axios.

Narratives

• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by The Jerusalem Post. While freeing hostages is of the utmost importance, Israel must not succumb to unfair international pressure. Hamas has a history of forcing uneven deals, and the Israeli war cabinet made the right decision by weighing its options before accepting this temporary pause. It should remain clear, however, that Israel's ultimate goal is to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem will continue to work toward this end even if that necessitates a resumption of conflict.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle East Eye. The Israeli military has inflicted disproportionate harm on the civilians of Gaza as opposed to on Hamas itself, and further assaults could lead to the deaths of many more. Israel has made a wise choice to bring its citizens home immediately through this temporary ceasefire, which should be extended. This will also see much-needed aid reach Gaza, where an utter humanitarian cataclysm has unfolded.

Predictions