An internal operation to bring Israel's hostages home from Gaza

Starts with a phone call.

Once details are received, a team of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) goes into vehicles marked with the logo of the humanitarian organization to take the hostages in Gaza.

The Israeli military and medical staff have also been gathered in several different places waiting to be returned home.

The hostages are liberated around the world, there are tense negotiations aimed at ending war, which began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people in Israel and abducted 251 others.

Over the next 15 months, over 47,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, according to Hamas, health ministry, and many others lost their homes in Israeli bombing.

According to the terms of the transaction to terminate the fire between Israel and Hamas, which began on January 19, a total of 33 Israeli hostages must be released and returned to their families during the first phase, which lasted six weeks.

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

If something goes wrong, it risks the hostages to remain captured and the war reign.

“This is more than just driving,” says ICD spokesman Sarah Davis.

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

ICRC, which acts as a neutral intermediary in the show, assembles a team of specialists, some of whom have participated in such operations in the past – although it is more challenging than most.

There are some details that the group cannot speak publicly because of fears that it can compromise the safety of the operation.

D -ja Davis says that planning is crucial to ensuring that the exchange is smooth. They have outlined alternative routes to reach different places in Gaza, knowing that “the most secure route can change” at any time.

Among their biggest concerns are the dangers caused by unexplored ammunition, destroyed and damaged infrastructure and large crowds with “increased emotions”.

“Our teams are preparing and planning as many scenarios as possible,” she says.

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

But it is impossible to plan everything.

“From previous experience, here and in other places around the world, we know that logistics and final details can change at any time, even more special -during the operations themselves,” says Davis.

Medical staff and so -called weapon pollution specialists, trained to identify explosive remains of war, travel with teams.

During the operations, ICC representatives also maintain regular contact with both Israeli employees and Hamas, as well as with intermediaries.

In previous versions, Hamas spread the names of the liberated hostages in advance on his telegram channels, without revealing exactly where the show would happen.

The first public signs in the places are the presence of armed and masked members of Hamas's military wing.

“From a Kioska man, I learned that something was happening at the intersection and that al-Casam fighters had a parade,” a local journalist said about the first edition in Gaza earlier this month.

The crowds began to gather to watch the fighters gathered in formation and the word began to spread that The first three hostages have been released Under the fire termination deal will appear there.

“When people realized that this would be the place where the Israeli hostages would betray, people began to chant (for Al -Casam and Senior Hamas figures),” he says. “They started shouting” God is the most ” – who showed how joyful they were.”

The journalist was also there for the second edition – in a different place in Gaza – next week, which he describes as “more organized.”

The fighters placed a small stage area with a desk and chairs and stood in a formation to separate the hostages from the crowds.

White cars with darkened windows were used to bring the hostages – four female soldiers – in the area.

The young women were filmed, thanked their abductors, and handed him bags for gifts in a video posted by Hamas's military wing.

They were brought to the stage and waved on the cheerful crowd before being handed over to the care of the MCC.

Hamas spokesman Abdul Latiif al-Cano said in a later statement that the “scenes and details” of the step-by-step show “tell the history of the creativity of resistance, heroism and reinforce a model of pride and dignity.”

D -ja Davis says there are some aspects of the show that are “beyond our control”.

“At any time, ICC employees are doing their best to protect the dignity of the release of these, but … it is important for people to recognize the limitations of what we can do,” she says.

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

The hostages are transferred to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on the outskirts of the gas.

Color D -Avi Banov, Deputy Chief of the Israeli Defense Force Medical Corps, says: “We are prepared on the outskirts of Gaza and other areas to get the hostages.

“We are always preparing because Hamas does not tell us,” Okay, we will release them in this area or in this area. “

Throughout the border, they have been created to receive them to receive them.

On the spot are military and medical staff, social workers and hostages families.

A former doctor of the Israeli army, who was involved in the first hostage operation during the termination of fire on November 2023, remembers that he was waiting for an ambulance at a base near the border. His was one of several teams in the case of standby, if one of the hostages had emergency medical care and says that there were strict instructions on how to interact with those who returned.

He remembers: “They told us, if you are evacuating them, do not ask them questions, do not do anything inappropriate, just be quiet and then if the hostages ask you something or you want something, of course you will answer and give it to them.

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

Kol D -R Banov says that the return begins with an introduction between the hostages and the medical staff.

The returned hostages are a doctor, a nurse and a social worker who “accompanies them” to the end to be taken to the hospital.

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

“We start with vitamins, something a little to eat and drink, and then the families,” says Kohl Dr. Banov.

As part of the grounding process, according to him, efforts are made to give the released hostage agency to make their own decisions, with questions such as: “Would you like to make a shower before or after you meet your parents? “

Of the first seven hostages who were released, he says most had “some injuries to shrapnel”, as well as suffering from malnutrition and metabolic problems.

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

In the coming weeks, he notes, they will also arrive the bodies of the dead hostages, with their plans transferred to a forensic laboratory before the burials in Israel.

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

Call D -R Banov says, “We tell them … We will take a helicopter back home. And then, if you're done, we'll start talking about what you've been through.”

This is where the correct recovery process begins.