Hamas has given three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Deir Al-Balah from Central Gaza on Saturday, television showed live.
The militant group released Ohad Ben Ami, 56, and Eli Sharabi, 52, both took the hostages of Kibbutz Be’eri during the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and / or Levy, 34 Years, kidnapped that day since the day the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel.
In exchange, Israel began to release 183 Palestinian prisoners, some were found guilty of participation in attacks that killed dozens of people and including 18 perpetuity and 111 detainees in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas.
A bus carrying Palestinians freed from Israel’s Ofer prison arrived in Ramallah in an occupied West Bank, showed live images.
Dozens of masked and armed fighters from Hamas were deployed in Deir Al-Balah, in the center of Gaza, on the site where the group has given the Israeli hostages to the Red Cross International Committee (CICR).
Crowds of people gathered on the site, where the ICRC vehicles waited to recover the hostages and transport them to the Israeli forces in Gaza, which will then take them to Israel.
For the hostages of hostages that have been detained from Gaza for over a year, the wait was a roller-coaster of dread and hope while the moments of reunion approached.
“I cannot even start to describe emotions, excitement, how happy we are finally close to being finished,” said Michael Levy, brother of where Levy, who lost his wife during of the October 7 attack and has a three -year -old son.
“We are waiting to hug him, waiting to see Almog (Levy’s son), again hugging his father.”
Other hostages are also faced with a severe return. The two teenage girls of Sharabi and his wife of British origin were killed during the attack on Hamas on Kibbutz Be’éri, where one in 10 resident was killed.
“We have the minutes, the seconds and we just want it to be already here,” said Astrid Dafan-Van Dien, a friend of Sharabi, “although it is very difficult because of Lianne (Sharab’s wife) and girls.
The exchange is the last in a series of Swaps since the start of the truce on January 19. Until now, 13 Israeli hostages and five Thai hostages removed during the Hamas attack have been released, as well as 583 Palestinian prisoners and prisoners.
Despite Hiccups, a 42-day ceasefire and an exchange of hostages for prisoner worked with support and mediation by us, by Egypt and Qatar, since it took place near it of three weeks.
President Donald Trump suggested that the Palestinians are moved to transform Gaza into “Riviera du Middle East”. Larry Garber, former director of the United States International Development Mission for the West Bank-Gaza, says that Trump’s words are `dangerous ” because they could interfere with phase 3 of the ceasefire agreement- Fire, which includes the implementation of the reconstruction plan in Gaza.
But fears of the agreement could collapse before all hostages have been free since the surprise call of US President Donald Trump so that the Palestinians are transferred from Gaza and the enclave is given to the United States and has become the “Middle East Riviera.”
The Arab states and the Palestinian groups have rejected the proposal, which, according to criticism, would constitute an ethnic cleaning.
Alaa Al-HazardA 25 -year -old soldier with Gaza Qassam Brigades, spoken to CBC In Have al-Balahsaying that “Hamas is back and stronger than before “and the Palestinians will not leave.
“Regarding Trump and the issue of trip, we lived 475 days of genocide … But we will stay in Gaza,” he said.
Israel rejected the accusations of genocide by saying that it respects international law and has the right to defend itself after the Hamas attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, praised Trump’s intervention and his Minister of Defense ordered the soldiers to make plans to allow the Palestinians who wanted to leave Gaza to do so.
As part of the ceasefire agreement, 33 Israeli children, sick women and men, injured and older must be released during an initial phase in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Negotiations on a second phase began this week to return the remaining hostages and accept a total withdrawal of the Israeli Gaza troops in preparation for a final end of the war.
Armed men led by Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and grabbing more than 250 hostages.
In response, Israel launched an air and land war in Gaza which killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and devastated a large part of the narrow enclave.
