- Israel releases 39 Palestinian prisoners

Four children and six elderly women in need of nedical attention, were among the first batch of 13 Israeli hostages released Friday under a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, an official Israeli list showed.

Hamas handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza a total of 24 hostages — 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and one Filipino — according to Qatar, which mediated the truce agreement.

In exchange, Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners from its jails.

Three girls and a boy, aged from two to nine, were on the list issued by the Israeli prime minister’s office, as were six women aged over 70.

Eight of the 13 freed hostages were from three family groups.

The release is part of the truce agreement with Israel and brings the total of released hostages to 29 out of the approximately 240 taken to Gaza during the October 7 attack.

Ten Thai hostages and one Filipino hostage, not involved in the agreement between Israel and Hamas, were also released on Friday, according to Qatar.

Five hostages already regained their freedom in October before the truce.

The 72-year-old Adina Moshe who was kidnapped from Nir Oz and identified by her family in a video clip showing her on a motorbike wedged between two Hamas fighters, was amongst the released captives.

According to her grandson, the septuagenarian was forced to hold on to the man who had shot and killed her husband Said David Moshe, so as not to fall from the motorbike.

She had heart surgery last year and needs medical attention.

Yaffa Adar, an 85-year-old resident of Nir Oz kibbutz was one of the oldest hostages released on Friday after a video of her kidnapping aboard what appeared to be a golf cart was shared widely on social media.

Her granddaughter, Adva Adar, was worried about the health of her grandmother, who suffers from heart and kidney failure, and high blood pressure.

Hannah Katzir, 76, a former nanny, was also released after she was abducted from Nir Oz kibbutz along with her son, Elad Katzir, 47.

She appeared in a hostage video released by Hamas on November 9. She uses a walking frame and needs medication, according to her family.

The 79-year-old Channah Peri, a diabetic patient who needs insulin has also been released in the ceasefire agreement.

She has South African nationality, and was on the phone with her daughter when the attackers burst into her home in Nirim kibbutz.

Her daughter then tried to contact her brother who lives in another house to get to safety, but it was too late.

Hamas broke through Gaza’s militarised border with Israel on October 7 to kill about 1,200 people and seize around 240 Israeli and foreign hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel has vowed to “crush” Hamas in response and unleashed a withering military campaign that Gaza’s Hamas government says has killed nearly 15,000 people in the coastal territory.