International journalist
Three Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were released from captivity on Saturday, in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Yarden Bibas, 34, Ofer Kalderon (53) and Keith Siegel, 65, were handed over to the Red Cross – the latest hostages that will be published as part of the Agreement on the trial of last month.
Palestinian prisoners were taken to the west coast buses, many of which came from a nearby Ofer prison.
The tone of exchange was sitting in great opposition with a chaotic handover on Thursday, during which the crowds pressed hostages, causing concern for their safety and forced Israel to delay the day of the Palestinian prisoner.
It was tidy on Saturday, but it retained the presentation elements that they sought to project that Hamas remained a ruling power in Gaza.
The lines of armed fighters held the crowds, while the men who were released were charged with more armed and masked fighters. The inscription behind them was worn by pictures of the murdered leaders of Hamas.
The Red Cross officers signed certificates on release for Mr. Kalderon and Mr. Bibas, who were then forced to hold them while waving a crowd at Khan Younis.
While Mr. Siegel, an American-Israeli dual citizen, appeared on stage in the city of Gaza, the crowd gathered in the hostage Square in Tel Aviv broke out in Cheers, and some chanted, “He is a hero, he is a hero.” One woman described the feeling of “pure happiness”.
Mr. Siegel’s wife, Adrienne, said “There is no one happier than me,” as she was taken in a car to meet her husband.
The family of the French-Israeli Mr. Kalderon said in a statement that “they were overwhelmed with joy, relief and emotions after 484 long and difficult days of unbearable waiting.”
They added that he “endured the months in the nightmare,” holding “hopes that he would accept his children again.”
But others, like Liz Domsky, had mixed feelings.
“Everyone needs to go home,” she said as she watched the mountain square process.
“I have a student there, a bait bathinginin. I was a teacher in high school in which he studied. We are very concerned about him. We hope he will come back. Not on the first list.”
In Israel, there was a similar complexity of emotions over the release of Mr. Bibas, whose wife Shiri and two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were also abducted during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Hamas claimed to have been killed by the Israeli air strike early in the next war – but they were Called on the hostage list that said in January that he was ready to get rid of.
Holding a picture of Kfir, who was only nine months old when they took him, Andrea Wittenberg noted, “They are children. They should be home. It’s impossible to be in Gaza.”
She added, “I don’t want to give up.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the return of Mr. Bibas as “simply heartbroken”, saying that his country remained “deeply worried” because of their destiny. “Like the whole people, we keep them in our hearts,” he wrote.
Herzog added that every hostage “deserves time for rehabilitation and renewal of his life, and each of the hostages deserves to come home soon.”
In Ramallah, on the occupied west coast, buses of liberated Palestinian prisoners welcomed large and cheerful crowds.
“We were born again today … We left our ears with the graves of the spaciousness of the world,” said Nasrallah Muammar, who was released after 17 years in prison, said in his first statement, according to Palestinian media.
“Our people deserve freedom,” the former prisoner was quoted Al-Barghouti after his release.
On Saturday, hostages were more organized than Thursday, when two Israelites and five Thai nationals They were guided by cheerful crowds, which sometimes had to be ejected out of the way.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described Israel as “shocking scenes,” he asked – and got beliefs – that he would not happen again.
The International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Oscoljaric urged that the safety of handover was improved and to “take place in a safe and dignified way.”
According to the Hamas-Run Gaza Ministry, nearly 47,500 people were killed in the territory since Israel attacked after the attack on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 took hostages.
The release agreement on the interruption and hostage between Israel and Hamas began on January 19, and the first phase saw 33 hostages and 1,900 prisoners, as well as hundreds of trucks who wore humanitarian aid daily in Gaza.
The crossing of Rafah between Gaza and Egypt – a key humanitarian corridor – was also reopened on Saturday after being closed for eight months.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that 50 patients went over the transition to access medical care in Egypt.
The hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are also allowed to return to their homes in the northern Gaza this week.
But Ashraf al-Dous, among them, said some, including his father, returned south after seeing the proportions of destruction caused by Israeli air attacks.
“That’s really a mess,” he said. “The situation is catastrophic.”
Most of the floors in his residential building in the northern Gazi city were destroyed, he said. “I didn’t expect the situation to be like that – it’s too much.”
