14 hostages reach Israel after hours-delay, truce extended at last minute following night of dramatic negotiations

At the end of a dramatic night of negotiations, Israel announced that the truce with Hamas would continue after the terror organization released the 10 Israeli hostages as stipulated under the terms of the agreement.

The terror group set four Thai citizens and two Russian-Israelis free as well as the 10 Israeli hostages, and at the last minute, fulfilled the terms for another extension of the truce by sending a list of hostages set to be freed on Thursday.

“The War Cabinet unanimously decided last night that if a list is not delivered by seven o’clock this morning as agreed upon in the outline - fighting will be resumed immediately. A short time ago, Israel was given a list of women and children in accordance with the terms of the agreement, and therefore the truce will continue,” the war cabinet said in a statement on Thursday morning.

Less than an hour before midnight on Wednesday, Hamas finally released 10 additional Israelis and four Thai nationals from captivity after two Russian-Israeli women hostages had been released hours before.

Around 8 p.m., Israeli media had mistakenly reported that the planned release of the 10 Israeli hostages had begun before it became clear that Hamas had only released two Russian-Israeli citizens in a separate agreement with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

Hamas officials excused the delay, calling them “logistical issues,” while the Israeli war cabinet began to discuss possible reactions if the hostages wouldn’t be released before the deadline for the truce agreement at midnight.

The 10 Israeli and four Thai hostages finally reached Israeli territory shortly before midnight and were transferred to hospitals for medical checkups and to meet their families.

Despite the terms of the truce agreement stipulating an extension of the truce for another day would only kick in if Hamas sent a list of hostages to be freed on the following day before midnight, the Israeli war cabinet agreed to extend the deadline to 7 a.m. on Thursday morning.

During the night, Hamas sent a list that wasn’t deemed acceptable by Israel, as it contained only five women and children and the bodies of three dead Israelis.

Shortly before the deadline expired, Hamas sent another list containing 8 women and children and three bodies, which was accepted by the Israeli war cabinet. The reason Israel agreed to eight instead of ten hostages was that Hamas released the two Israeli women with Russian citizenship yesterday, Channel 12 news reported.

The Israeli government published a list of the Israeli hostages that were released yesterday:

Gali Tarshansky (13), Amit Shani (15), Liam Or (18), Itay Regev Jerbi (18),  Ofir Engel (17), Yarden Roman-Gat (35), Moran Stela Yanai (40), Liat Beinin Atzili (49), Raaya Rotem (54), Raz Ben-Ami (56).

The two Russian-Israeli dual citizens who were freed earlier were identified as Yelena Trupanov (50) and her mother Irena Tati (73).

Four Thai nationals were also released.