Three more Israeli hostages were released on Saturday in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners as truce Between Israel and Hamas, he continued to hold. It was a fifth exchange of hostages and prisoners that took place as part of the first phase of the agreement, which began on January 19th.
Ohad Ben Ami, 56, Eli Sharabi, 52, or Levy, 34, everyone took as hostages during Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed in Israel and launched the war in Gaza. Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the local Ministry of Health Hamas.
Mohammad Abu Samra / AP
The liberation of three male hostages followed the same choreography as the previous editions: they were taken to white vans to an insented area where they were handed over to the Red Cross officers. All three men looked very thin and fragile.
“These are men who endured the hell alone,” hostages and missing families in Tel Aviv said in a statement after seeing three hostages on Saturday. “There can be no more delays – the second phase of hostage agreement must be implemented immediately!”
The Prime Minister’s Israeli Office announced a statement after release on the said: “Due to the serious state of three hostages and repeated violations of the Hamas terrorist organization, Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu, he instructed that he did not allow the situation not to become unobstructed, and take appropriate measures.”
There were, however, which measures would be.
Shortly after the tuna of the hostage in Gaza, a bus carrying Palestinian prisoners published by Israel arrived on the west coast, according to an agreement on the ceasefire, Reuters reported.
Mahmoud Illean / AP
Ben Ami and Sharabi were abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th. The wife of Ben Amy, Raza, was also abducted, but was released as part of a separate agreement.
“I just hope he already knows, because only another layer of torture that he survived for 490 days and then went out to that news,” Sharabbi’s son -in -law, Stephen Brisley, said CBS News Partner Network BBC News on the eve of his exit.
Or Levy attended the Nova Music festival with his wife Einav when they attacked militants. The two tried to get into a bunker. Einav was killed, or he was abducted.
The transfer followed for days after President Trump suggested that Palestinians in Gaza could be transferred to other countrieswho sent diplomatic striking waves around the world and caused concern that a fragile agreement on the interruption between Israel and Hamas could fall apart.
So far, 18 hostages have been released in exchange for over 550 Palestinian prisoners as part of the first phase of the agreement. Negotiations in the second phase are ongoing.
