Interior operation to bring Israel’s hostages to Gaza’s house

Start with a phone call with a location.

Once the details are received, a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) stands out in vehicles marked with the logo of the humanitarian organization to pick up the hostages in Gaza.

Israeli military and medical personnel are also assembled in several different places, hoping to bring them home.

The hostages, observed worldwide, come after months of tense negotiations aimed at finishing a war that began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped another 251.

In the 15 months that followed, more than 47,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health led by Hamas, and many more lost their homes in Israeli bombings.

According to the terms of the high fire agreement between Israel and Hamas that began on January 19, a total of 33 Israeli hostages will be released and will be returned to their families during the first phase, which last six weeks.

In return, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are being released.

If something goes wrong, run the risk of hostages that remain in captivity and revive war.

“This is more than a single impulse,” says ICRC spokeswoman Sarah Davies.

“These operations may seem simple, but in fact they are very complex and require rigorous security measures to minimize the risks for those involved.”

The ICRC, which acts as a neutral intermediary in the delivery, brings together a team of specialists, some of whom have been involved in similar operations in the past, although this is more challenging than most.

There are some details of which the group cannot speak publicly due to the concerns that it could compromise the safety of the operation.

Mrs. Davies says that planning is crucial to ensure that exchange works without problems. They have mapped alternative routes to reach different locations in Gaza, knowing that the “safer route can change” at any time.

Among his greatest concerns are the dangers posed by unleashed ammunition, destroyed and damaged infrastructure, and large crowds with “high emotions.”

“Our teams prepare and plan as many scenarios as possible,” she says.

“The most important thing for us is to be able to return any person entrusted to our care safely to their homes.”

But it is impossible to plan everything.

“From previous experience, here and in other parts of the world, we know that logistics and final details can change at any time, and particularly during the operations themselves,” says Mrs. Davies.

The medical staff and the so -called weapons pollution specialists, trained to identify explosive remains of the war, travel with the teams.

During the operations, the representatives of the ICRC also maintain regular contact with Israeli and Hamas officials, as well as mediators.

In the previous versions, Hamas has distributed the names of the hostages released in advance in their telegram channels, without revealing exactly where the transfers will occur.

The first public signals of the locations have been the presence of armed and masked members of the Military Wing of Hamas.

“I discovered by a type of kiosk that was something that happened at the crossroads and that the Al-Qassam fighters were having a parade,” says a local journalist about the first launch in the city of Gaza earlier this month.

The crowds began to meet to see how the fighters met in formation, and the voice began to spread that The first three hostages released Under the high fire agreement would appear there.

“When people realized that this would be the place where they would deliver to Israeli hostages, people began to sing (for Al-Qassam and Hamas figures),” he says. “They started screaming ‘God is bigger’, which showed how happy it was.”

The journalist was also there to The second release – In a different place in the city of Gaza, the following week, which describes as “more organized.”

The fighters established a small stage area with a desk and chairs, and remained in formation to separate the hostages from the crowds.

White cars with black windows were used to take hostages, four soldiers, to the area.

The young women were filmed by thanking their captors and received gift bags in a video published by the Military Wing of Hamas.

They were taken to the stage and greeted the crowd they cheered, before being delivered to the care of the ICRC.

Hamas spokesman, Abdul Latif al-Qanou, said in a later statement that the “scenes and details” of the staged transfer “tell the story of the creativity of resistance, heroism and reinforce a model of pride and dignity.”

Mrs. Davies says that there are some aspects of the delivery “out of our control.”

“At all times, ICRC personnel do everything possible to protect the dignity of those released, but … it is important that people recognize the limitations of what we can do,” she says.

“Our priority remains the safe and successful release and transfer of those under our care.”

The hostages are transferred to the Israel Defense Forces (FDI) on the outskirts of Gaza.

Colonel Dr. Avi Banov, deputy director of the Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces, says: “We are prepared through the outskirts of Gaza and other areas to receive hostages.

“We always prepare because Hamas does not tell us: ‘ok, we will free them in this area or in that area'”.

On the other side of the border, reception points have been established to receive them.

On the site there are military and medical personnel, social workers and the families of the hostages.

A former Israeli army doctor who was involved in the first hostage return operation during the high fire of November 2023 Remember to have waited next to an ambulance on a base near the border. His was one of several teams in case one of the hostages had a medical emergency and says that there were strict instructions on how to interact with those who returned.

He remembers: “They told us that if he will evacuate them, do not ask them questions, do not do anything inappropriate, just streets and then if the hostages ask you something or want something, of course you are going to answer and do it to them.

He says that the atmosphere at the base was of emotion and nerves. “It was a very important mission,” he says.

Colonel Dr. Banov says that the return begins with an introduction between hostages and medical staff.

The hostages returned are assigned a doctor, a nurse and a social worker who “accompany them to the end” to take them to the hospital.

Families are advised to give the hostages “a little time” with medical teams before the meeting to allow them to “breathe and understand that (they are) in a safe place again.”

“We start with vitamins, something small to eat and drink, and then families,” says Colonel Dr. Banov.

As part of a “base” process, he says, efforts are made to give the hostage agency released to make their own decisions, with questions such as: “Would you like to shower before or after meeting your parents?”

Of the first seven hostages to be released, he says that most had “some kind of shrapnel lesions”, as well as suffered from malnutrition and metabolic problems.

“They are not good physically, it is mentally a very complicated problem,” he says.

In the coming weeks, he points out, the bodies of dead hostages will also arrive, with plans to transfer them to a forensic laboratory before funerals in Israel.

After receiving the initial treatment at the reception point, surviving hostages are transferred in a helicopter “specially adapted” to a hospital elsewhere in the country.

Colonel Dr. Banov says: “We tell them … we will carry a helicopter back home. And then, if he is willing to do it, we will start talking about what has happened.”

It is there where the proper recovery process begins.