Three Israeli hostages and dozens of Palestinian prisoners released

Three Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were released on Saturday in captivity, in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Yarden Bibas, 34, Ofer Kalderon, 53, and Keith Siegel, 65, were given to the Red Cross-The last hostages to be published as part of a cease-fire agreement concluded the month last.

Palestinian prisoners were taken to buses for Gaza and the West Bank, many of whom coming from neighboring Odern prison.

The tone of the exchange was in contrast striking with the chaotic transfer of Thursday, during which the wealth crowd insisted on the hostages, arousing their concern for their security and inciting Israel to delay the liberation of Palestinian prisoners of this daytime.

The release of Saturday was more ordered, but kept the presentation elements which sought to project that Hamas remains the governing force in Gaza.

Lines of armed fighters have maintained crowds at a distance, while the freed men were flanked by more armed and masked fighters. A banner behind them wore the images of the leaders killed from Hamas.

Heads of the Red Cross signed Liberation certificates from Mr. Kalderon and Mr. Bibas, who were then made to hold them when they agitated the crowd of Khan Younis.

While Mr. Siegel, a double American-Israeli national, appeared on stage in Gaza City, a crowd gathered on the Place des Otages in Tel Aviv broke out in applause, some singing: “He is a hero, c ‘ is a hero. ” A woman described a “pure happiness”.

Mr. Siegel’s wife Adrienne said that “there is no one happy than me” when she was filmed when entering a car to meet her husband.

The Israeli family, Mr. Kalderon, said in a statement that they were “overwhelmed with joy, relief and emotion after 484 days long and difficult to wait unbearable”.

They added that he “endured months in a nightmare”, again keeping the hope of kissing his children “.

But others, like Liz Domsky, had mixed feelings.

“They all need to go home,” she said, looking at the Hottage Square procedures.

“I have a student there, Bar Kupershtein. I was a teacher at the school where he studied. We are very worried about him. We hope he will come back. He is not in the first list.”

There was a similar complexity of emotion in Israel about the release of Mr. Bibas, whose wife, Shiri, and two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were also kidnapped during the attack on October 7, 2023 by Hamas.

Hamas said they had been killed by an Israeli air strike early in the war that followed – but they were Appointed in a list of hostages, he said in January that he was ready to release.

To tighten an image of KFIR, which was only nine months old when it was taken, Andrea Wittenberg pointed out: “They are children. They should be at home. It is impossible for them to be in Gaza.”

She added: “I don’t want to give up.”

Israeli president Isaac Herzog described Mr. Bibas’s return as “simply heartbreaking”, saying that his country had remained “deeply concerned” by their fate. “As a whole nation, we hold them in our hearts,” he wrote.

Herzog added that each hostage released “deserves time to rehabilitate and rebuild their lives, and each hostages deserves to return home soon”.

In Ramallah, in an occupied West Bank, the buses of released Palestinian prisoners were encountered by large jubilant crowds.

“Today, we were born again … We left the narrowness of the tombs in the world space,” said Nasrallah Muammar, who was released after 17 years in prison, in his first declaration, according to Palestinian media.

“I feel joy despite the journey of pain and the difficulties we have experienced,” Al-Al-Barghouti told Reuters Ali al-Barghouti, who was serving two sentences for life.

The release of the hostages on Saturday was more organized than that Thursday, when two Israelis and five Thai nationals were taken through enthusiastic crowds, which sometimes had to be pushed.

Described as “shocking scenes” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel demanded – and received insurance – that they would not be repeated.

The International Committee of the President of the Red Cross Mirjana SPOLJARIC had urged that security around transfers is improved and that they “take place safe and worthy”.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health managed by Hamas, nearly 47,500 people have been killed in the territory since Israel invaded following the attack on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 hostages.

An agreement to release the ceasefire and hostage between Israel and Hamas began on January 19, with the first step to see 33 hostages and 1,900 liberated prisoners, as well as hundreds of trucks carrying authorized humanitarian aid in Gaza every day.

The passage of the Rafah between Gaza and Egypt – a key humanitarian corridor – was also reopened on Saturday, after eight months of closure.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said that 50 patients left through the crossing to access medical care in Egypt.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians were also allowed to return home in northern Gaza this week.

But Ashraf Al-Dous, among them, said that some, including his father, returned to the south after seeing the extent of the destruction caused by Israeli air strikes.

“It’s really a mess,” he said. “The situation is catastrophic.”

Most of the floors of its building in the north of the city of Gaza have been destroyed, he said. “I did not expect the situation to be like that – that’s too much.”