Tets for displaced Palestinians are lined up in front of a war-damaged building, west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP
With hours to go before the first phase of the truce is due to expire, mediator Egypt said on Thursday that Israeli, Qatari and US delegations were in the capital Cairo for "intensive" talks on a second phase that should bring a permanent end to the war.
Hamas said in a statement that "with the end of the first phase of the ceasefire", the group "affirms its full commitment to implementing all the provisions of the agreement in all its stages and details".
"We call on the international community to pressure the Zionist occupation (Israel) to... immediately enter the second phase of the agreement without any delay," it said.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday "instructed the negotiation delegation to depart for Cairo", his office said shortly after Hamas handed over the remains of dead Israeli captives under the truce, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held under harsh conditions in Israeli jails.
The ceasefire, agreed after months of gruelling negotiations, has largely halted Israel’s 15-month assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women.
'We were in hell'
The detainees swap early Thursday was the final one under the initial stage of the truce that took effect on January 19.
Israel's Prison Service said that 643 Palestinians were freed after Hamas returned the bodies of four Israelis.
The Palestinians freed Thursday were meant to be released at the weekend, but Israel delayed the process.
Among those freed was the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail, Nael Barghouti, who spent more than four decades behind bars.
Member of Fatah, the movement of current Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Barghouti arrived in Egypt on Thursday, after being expelled from the Palestinian territories upon his release.
Nearly every Palestinian has a friend or family member who has been jailed by Israel. Most are incarcerated for months or years without trial in what is known as administrative detention.
Around 500 of them had been kidnapped by Israeli forces from Gaza.
AFP images showed some prisoners, back in Gaza, awaiting treatment or being assessed at a hospital in Khan Younis after their release.
Several freed Palestinian prisoners were hospitalised following earlier swaps.
Yahya Shraideh, released on Thursday, said: "We were in hell and we came out of hell."
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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