ADEN, 16 October, 2020, (TON): Planes carrying prisoners to be exchanged by Yemen’s warring parties took off on Friday on the second day of an operation to return about 1,000 men home and help build momentum for a new push to end a catastrophic war.

According to International Committee of the Red Cross more than 700 prisoners were exchanged as the operation started on Thursday.

A Saudi-led military coalition, which supports the internationally recognised Yemeni government, and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement agreed last month in Switzerland to exchange 1,081 prisoners, including 15 Saudis, in the largest swap of its kind in the five-year-old conflict.

According to Al Arabiya Tv about 355 prisoners are expected to be exchanged on Friday.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said the swap “brings hope for peace-building”.

On Thursday U.N. Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths told the Security Council that the swap was an “airlift of hope”, and added that both parties remain in negotiations for a permanent ceasefire, which he hoped could be agreed by the end of the year.

The warring sides had agreed in 2018 to swap 15,000 detainees were divide between both sides to pave the way for political negotiations to end the conflict, but progress has been slow.

Yemen has been at war since the Houthis ousted the internationally recognized government from power in Sanaa in late 2014, prompting the alliance to intervene in 2015.