Petah Tikva (Israel) (AFP) – Eleven hostages freed by Hamas, including nine children, “are undergoing a medical and emotional evaluation,” says Efrat Bron-Harlev, CEO of the Scheider Children’s Medical Center in Israel. Their “physical condition… is now stable” she adds. The hostages were released during a four-day truce agreed by Hamas and Israel, which has also seen Palestinian prisoners freed. The pause in fighting is the first since the October 7 attack in which Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 240 hostages. Israel’s response, a sustained air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, has killed nearly 15,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
