Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys

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But Israel has vowed to resume its massive offensive once the truce ends. That has clouded hopes that the deal could eventually help wind down the conflict, which has fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East. But relief has been tempered -- among Israelis by the fact that not all hostages will be freed and among Palestinians by the briefness of the pause. The short truce leaves Gaza mired in humanitarian crisis and under the threat that fighting could soon resume.

As a Palestinian, my heart is broken for my brothers in Gaza, so I can't really celebrate," said Abdulqader Khatib, a U.N. worker whose 17-year-old son, Iyas, was freed. "But I am a father. And deep inside, I am very happy." The ministry says some 6,000 people have been reported missing, feared buried under rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its death tolls. After nightfall Friday, a line of ambulances emerged from Gaza through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt carrying the freed hostages, as seen live on Egypt's state-run Al-Qahera TV. The freed Israelis included nine women and four children 9 and under. The hostages included multiple generations. Nine-year-old Ohad Munder-Zichri was freed along with his mother, Keren Munder, and grandmother Ruti Munder. The fourth-grader was abducted during a holiday visit to his grandparents at the kibbutz where about 80 people -- nearly a quarter of all residents of the small community -- are believed to have been taken hostage. During the truce, Israel agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 liters (34,340 gallons) of fuel per day -- still only a small portion of Gaza's estimated daily needs of more than 1 million liters.

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Two cars also carried magnesium hydroxide, but there is no indication that those cars were breached, according to CSX. The others were either empty or carrying non-hazardous products such as grain and plastic. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people are crowded into the southern portion of the territory, with more than 1 million living in U.N. schools-turned-shelters. The calm brought a chance for displaced residents of the south to visit homes and retrieve some belongings. But the hundreds of thousands who evacuated from northern Gaza to the south were warned not to return in leaflets dropped by Israel. Israeli troops hold much of the north, including Gaza City.

Beshear also activated the state’s price-gouging laws to protect families from any grossly overpriced goods and services after the incident, his office announced.We don't have enough clothes, food and drinks," he said. "The situation is disastrous. It's better for a person to die."

The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking scores of hostages, including babies, women and older adults, as well as soldiers.

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Iyas had been taken last year into "administrative detention," without charges or trial and based on secret evidence. Israel often holds detainees for months without charges. Most of those who are tried are put before military courts that almost never acquit defendants and often don't follow due process, human rights groups say. Israel says the cease-fire could be extended if more hostages are released, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it had received a new list of hostages to be released by Hamas on Saturday.

Sulphur dioxide can cause severe irritation to the eyes, mucous membranes, skin and respiratory tract, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Inhalation exposure to very low concentrations of sulphur dioxide can aggravate chronic pulmonary diseases. Symptoms of sulphur dioxide respiratory irritation include sneezing, sore throat, wheezing, breath shortness, chest tightness and a feeling of suffocation. Yael Adar spotted her mother, 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, in a TV newscast of the release and was cheered to see her walking. "That was a huge concern, what would happen to her health during these almost two months," she told Israel's Channel 12.The hope is that "momentum" from the deal will lead to an "end to this violence," said Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, which served as a mediator along with the United States and Egypt. People react as they hear the news of the release of 13 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Nov. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Netanyahu has also vowed to continue the war to destroy Hamas' military capabilities, end its 16-year rule in Gaza and return all the hostages. One member of the train’s two-person crew was treated at the scene for minor injuries, WKYT reported. It added that according to the state’s emergency management officials no one was hospitalised. Friday's halt in fighting brought Gaza's uprooted population a moment to catch their breath after weeks of fleeing for shelter, searching for food and fearing for family.