Palestinians
who have returned walk among the rubble of buildings largely destroyed by
Israeli army bombardments in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan.
29, 2025, after Israel began allowing hundreds
of thousands of Palestinians to return to the heavily damaged area last Monday.
(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Deir Al-Balah
(Gaza Strip) — Hamas began the process of freeing three more
Israeli hostages and five Thai captives on Thursday, the third such release
since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took hold earlier this month. Israel was
expected to release another 110 Palestinian prisoners.
The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most
destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, whose Oct. 7, 2023,
attack into Israel sparked the fighting. It has held despite a dispute earlier
this week over the sequence in which the hostages were released.
Hamas handed female Israeli soldier Agam Berger, 20, to
the Red Cross at a ceremony in the heavily destroyed urban refugee camp of
Jabaliya in northern Gaza. The Israeli government later confirmed that Berger
was with its forces.
Another ceremony was planned in the southern city of Khan
Younis, in front of the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Both
were attended by hundreds of people, including masked militants and onlookers.
In Israel, people cheered, clapped and whistled at a
square in Tel Aviv where supporters of the hostages watched Berger's handover
on big screens next to a large clock that's counted the days the hostages have
been in captivity. Some held signs saying: “Agam we're waiting for you at
home.”
Berger was among five young, female soldiers abducted in
the Oct. 7 attack. The other four were released on Saturday. The other two
Israelis set to be released Thursday are Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Moses, an
80-year-old man.
There was no official confirmation of the identities of
the Thai nationals who will be released.
A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with
dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas' attack. Twenty-three
Thais were among more than 100 hostages released during a weeklong ceasefire in
November 2023. Israel says eight Thais remain in captivity, two of whom are
believed to be dead.
Of the people set to be released from prisons in Israel,
30 are serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis.
Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent former militant leader and
theater director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 before being
rearrested days later, is also among those set to be released.
Israel said Yehoud was supposed to have been freed
Saturday and delayed the opening of crossings to northern Gaza when she was
not.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the
ceasefire after a year of tough negotiations, resolved the dispute with an
agreement that Yehoud would be released Thursday. Another three hostages, all
men, are set to be freed Saturday along with dozens more Palestinian prisoners.
On Monday, Israel began allowing Palestinians to return
to northern Gaza, the most heavily destroyed part of the territory, and
hundreds of thousands streamed back. Many found only mounds of rubble where
their homes had been.
In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is set to
release a total of 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children, older adults
and sick or wounded men, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel says Hamas has confirmed that eight of the hostages to be released in
this phase are dead.
Palestinians have cheered the release of the prisoners,
who they widely see as heroes who have sacrificed for the cause of ending
Israel's decades-long occupation of lands they want for a future state.
Israeli forces have meanwhile pulled back from most of
Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return to what remains of
their homes and humanitarian groups to surge assistance.
The deal calls for Israel and Hamas to negotiate a second
phase in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages and the ceasefire
would continue indefinitely. The war could resume in early March if an
agreement is not reached.
Israel says it is still committed to destroying Hamas,
even after the militant group reasserted its rule over Gaza within hours of the
truce. A key far-right partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition
is already calling for the war to resume after the ceasefire's first phase.
Hamas says it won't release the remaining hostages without
an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Hamas started the war when it sent thousands of fighters
storming into Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians,
and abducted around 250.
Israel's ensuing air and ground war among the deadliest
and most destructive in decades. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been
killed, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health
Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were militants.
The Israeli military says it killed over 17,000 fighters,
without providing evidence, and that it went to great lengths to try to spare
civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in
dense residential neighborhoods and put military infrastructure near homes,
schools and mosques.
The Israeli offensive has transformed entire
neighborhoods into mounds of gray rubble, and it's unclear how or when anything
will be rebuilt. Around 90% of Gaza's population has been displaced, often
multiple times, with hundreds of thousands of people living in squalid tent
camps or shuttered schools.
