Twelve hostages released, says Thai prime minister
The Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, says 12 hostages have been released. Posting on social media, he has said:
It has been confirmed by the security department and the ministry of foreign affairs that there are 12 Thai hostages already released. Embassy officials are on their way to pick them up in another hour. They should know their names and details. Please stay tuned.
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First Israeli hostages cross into Egypt, local media reports
The first group of 13 Israeli hostages released by Hamas have now crossed into Egypt after nearly seven weeks in captivity in the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel is reporting. The Hamas-linked Al-Aqsa TV has cited sources within the group who have also confirmed that the first batch of Israeli hostages have been handed to the Red Cross.
An interesting piece here from NYT exploring the current realpolitik in the West Bank and its potential for some kind of arrangement for a post-war Gaza. (Free to read)
The notion of Day After is illusionary unless the actors are driven into that channel.
If we do arrive at such horizon in the near future, the only appropriate thing to do would be to hold election in Gaza and keep working with that elected leadership. PA/PLO/Abbas is rotten and it corrupt whatever comes in contact with it. Rather, focus on the elected leadership of Gaza to lead the future the negotiations and dialogues on Palestinian 
state.
Dahlan is a scum.
The fact that his name is even being mentioned is testament to the absolute desperation of the situation. This guyās got more baggage than a travelling circus.
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Talking about day-afters at this point will be meaningless without Israel letting up on their aggression and Hamas disbanding.
You can have all the elections but as long as Hamas has the might in Gaza , it will mean nothing.
Let qualified people nominated by UN / Arab League form the administration for a period of 10 years pending the disbandment of Hamas and other terrorist outfits. After thereās peace and relative development, hand the administration over to elected representatives of the Palestinians.
Holding the elections at this point or in the near future will be self-defeating.
The wounds will be too new for the Palestinians. They deserve to know how a real government takes care of people and at this point , I donāt think there will be any potential elected representatives who have that capability.
Democracy needs some awareness among people. Have elections on the ward , district level even but hold off on any elections at national level until the people are ready for it
Weāve seen attempts at democracy in that region fail before (Arab spring comes to mind immediately) and this would be the same.
MBS and UAE
Bahrain who jailed a 14-year old for holding a placard
Trumpās favorite dictator
Butcher of Aleppo
The thugs of Yemen, Sudan, and Libya
I know there are many individuals in the Arab countries who are capable of running an interim administration, but assigning Arab League or its member states to choose the individuals is self-defeating.
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Thereās budding narrative since last night that USA was the driving force behind hostage & prisoner release and the Pause. Seriously??? First you encourage and assist the massacre of a people and then you are trying to hijack the only good thing that has happened in seven weeks!!! Biden, you are just an old, despicable sod.
go on thenā¦
if it wasnt the USA, who was the driving force?
pretty much the only country that could persuade Isreal
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US is the biggest backer and hence holds the greatest leverage over Israel.
But we have seen, over the course of last seven weeks, that Israel have repeatedly ignored US concerns regarding ever mounting civilian casualties and severe shortage of humanitarian aids. On the other hand, US had no contacts with Hamas without whom the entire project would have been futile.
IMO, US, Israel, Qatar, Hamas, and Egypt (contacts with Gaza leadership) are the key players, each filling a particular but essential niche.
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Thereās no other option. Displacing Hamas and then holding elections would only get Hamas or equivalent back into power.
Itās imperative that Palestinians need better representatives and leadership. And the international community should make it imperative for Hamas to disband. The whole purpose of the cease fire would be lost if it only allows Hamas to further restock more.
One of the driving forces for sure. US is the only country that Israel would listen to.
Doesnāt mean other countries like Egypt , Jordan , Qatar didnāt have a role to play.
Heās right though, you donāt get to support and arm a massacre of innocents, then take credit for pausing the slaughter for a bit
The reason we are here is because the world kept crapping on the Palestinians. How do we expect the Palestinians to disown Hamas, if we keep crapping on them? Thereās a world beyond Arab League. You canāt expect to solve the Palestine issue by dropping a bunch of self-serving cunts who donāt empathize with Palestine? Isnāt it the exact reason that created Hamas? It will be like having another Abbas/PA, only bigger and from beyond the Palestine community.
The US and the EU has to come out of their Israel appeasing stupor and be serious about solving this issue. Even then it will be challenging and will be longwinded.
Meanwhile, the hostage/prisoner release today is delayed. 
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What is easy to forget now is that there really was no Palestinian involvement in discussions on the Palestinian question until maybe the 90s. That is really what the relevance of the Oslo accords was in that it finally put Palestinians in a position to negotiate their own fate rather than having other Arab states do it for them.
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Fourteen Thai and one Filipino nationals has been freed on the sidelines of the two batches of Israeli and Palestinian hostage/prisoner swap. Itās widely reported that the release Thai and Filipino nationals was outside the scope of the negotiations in Doha and the Thai and Filipino authorities negotiated with Iran to secure the release of their citizens.
So, the reported 240 hostages are Israeli or Israelis with dual-citizens. I guess the reported 1200 killed during the Hamas carnage donāt include any non-Israelis either.
How many non-Israelis have been killed so far? How many non-Israelis are still in captivity?
Oh,were in trouble now
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Didnāt Israel summon the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium too?
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