People gathered in Paris Saturday in support of the hostages held in Gaza, describing being torn between hope and fear hours before a truce set to allow their release takes effect.
The ceasefire, intended to pave the way to an end of the Israel-Hamas war, was scheduled to begin at 0630 GMT Sunday.
Under the deal, 33 hostages taken by militants during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel will be returned from Gaza during an initial 42-day period.
In Paris, hostage supporters gathered opposite the Eiffel Tower anxiously awaiting the ceasefire.
“It’s a mix of hope and fear,” said Jean-David Ichay, president of the “Tous 7 Octobre” association.
“There’s already the fact that only 33 hostages have been announced so far… The rest will either happen later or not at all,” he said.
Of the 251 people taken hostage, 94 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Two sources close to Hamas told AFP that the first group of hostages to be released would be three Israeli women soldiers.
In Paris, Ichay expressed worries about “the health of the hostages — those who will be alive, those who will return deceased.”
Participants at the rally held up “bring them home” placards with the faces of some of the hostages while a digital counter marked the days, hours and minutes they have been held captive.
“Now, at last, we have hope. Please support us until the last hostage is home,” Efrat Yahalomi, sister of French-Israeli hostage Ohad Yahalomi, said from a stage.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said Yahalomi and another dual national, Ofer Kalderon, are among those due to be freed in the first phase.
That stage will also see the release of 737 Palestinian prisoners, Israel’s justice ministry said, starting from 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Sunday.
Moshe Lavi said his brother-in-law Omri Miran, 47, was not among those expected to be released.
“We rejoice for those who will be reunited. But for us and for so many others, our fight continues,” he said.
“We call on the public to not fall into euphoria but to continue to come to rallies and speak up for the hostages.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,899 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
AFP
