Gaza ceasefire: Hamas releases three hostages, Israel frees Palestinian prisoners

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip (AP) – Hamas activists released three male hostages detained for more than a year in the Gaza Strip on Saturday and Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons in the fourth exchange of this type of ceasefire -The-feu which interrupted 15 months of intense fighting.

The activists presented to Yarden Bibas and French-Israélien Ofr Kalderon to officials of the Red Cross in the southern city of Khan Younis, while the Americans-Israelis Keith Siegel, in search of the Red Cross, were released on Saturday morning later Saturday morning in Gaza City to the north.

All three were removed during the attack led by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Their release brings to 18 the number of hostages published since the start of the ceasefire on January 19.

The outings were rapid and ordered, unlike the chaotic scenes that took place Thursday when armed activists seemed to have trouble retaining a crowd during a hostage outing. In the two outings on Saturday, masked and armed activists stood online while the hostages were heading for a scene and made before being driven and returned to the Red Cross.

In Tel Aviv’s Storms Square, thousands of people gathered to look at the outings transmitted live on a large screen, waving panels and cheers.

Shortly after the arrival of Siegel in Israel, a bus left the military prison of Orser with some 32 prisoners for the West Bank. Crowds of sympathizers praised the bus, applauding and hoisting the prisoners released on their shoulders in jubilation scenes.

The Israeli penitentiary authority said that the 183 Palestinian prisoners who should be released on Saturday had been released. Most of them, including 111 arrested after Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, were released in Gaza. Just over two dozen have returned to the enthusiastic crowd in occupied West Bank. Seven other perpetuity sentences were transferred to Egypt before their expulsion.

The ceasefire brings a respite to Gaza beaten

The ceasefire aims to finish The deadliest and most destructive war Never fought between Israel and Hamas. The agreement takes place for two weeks, allowing increased aid to flow into the tiny coastal territory and for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the remains of their houses in the north of the strip.

During the first phase of the truce of six weeks, a total of 33 Israeli hostages must be released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says he has received information from Hamas that eight of these hostages were killed in Hamas on October 7, 2023, attacking or died in captivity.

Also Saturday, a group of 50 sick and injured Palestinian children Gaza Left for treatment Thanks to Rafah’s border crossing to Egypt, during the first opening of the only outing of the enclave since Israel captured it nine months ago. A civilian mission of the European Union was deployed on Friday to prepare for reopening.

Rafah’s reopening marked another key step in the first phase of the ceasefire.

Israel and Hamas are ready next week to start negotiating a second phase From the ceasefire, which calls for releaseing the remaining hostages and extending the truce indefinitely. The war could resume in early March if an agreement is not concluded.

Israel says he is still determined to destroy Hamas, even after the militant group Reaffirmed his rule on Gaza In the hours following the last ceasefire. A far-right partner of the Netanyahu coalition calls on war to take over the first phase of the ceasefire.

Hamas says that it will not release the remaining hostages endless to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Families and neighbors celebrate the return of the hostages

Siegel, 65, from Chapel Hill, in North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, with his wife, Aviva Siegel. She was released during a brief ceasefire of 2023 and led a high -level campaign To free Keith and other hostages.

There were relief sighs and cheers in a living room where Kibbutz members watched the Siegel’s release. Many of those in the play were family friends, who applauded when he saw Siegel, while some have ripped off.

Meanwhile, the liberation of Bibas, 35, drew renewed attention to the fate of his wife, Shiri, and their two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, aged 4 years and 9 months when they were removed . All four were captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

KFIR was the youngest of around 250 people caught in captivity on October 7, and his fate quickly came to represent the helplessness and anger of the agitated hostage in Israel, where the Bibas family has become a familiar name.

Hamas said Shiri and his sons had been killed in an Israeli air strike, but Israel did not confirm this. Gal Hirsch, the special coordinator of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the return of hostages, said that Israel had “a great concern for life” of Shiri and his sons, and begged negotiators to provide information on their situation .

Kalderon, 54, was also captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

In Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv, Kalderon’s family has grown and applauded when I saw the images to climb to him on the stage at Khan Younis and be transferred to the Red Cross.

“Ofers is home!” They said, their arms got up in the sky.

The two children of Kalderon, Erez and Sahar, were removed by his side and released during the ceasefire of November 2023. Family members said that they had not been able to recover from their ordeal until ‘Upon his return.

“We are sorry that it took so long, OFER,” said Eyal Kalderon. “We will soon be a whole family again. We hope that other families will soon feel like that, until the last family. »»

French President Emmanuel Macron said that France “shares the relief and joy” of Kalderon’s return after 483 days of “unimaginable hell”, adding that France would continue to do everything that can guarantee the release of ‘Another French Israeli hostage still owned in Gaza.

More than 100 of the hostages removed on October 7 were published during the week in November 2023. There are around 80 others in Gaza, at least a third of them believed dead.

During the October 7 attack which sparked the war, some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed. More than 47,000 Palestinians were killed in war and war on the ground in retaliation in Israel, more than half of them, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not say how many deaths were militants.

The Israeli army says it killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence. He blamed Hamas’ civil death because his fighters operate in residential neighborhoods.

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Isseid contributed to Beitunia, in the West Bank. Moshe Edri at Reim Military Base, Israel and Paz Bar in Kfar Saba, Israel, contributed.