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Hamas released three Israeli hostages on Saturday, when the fourth exchange of a fragile ceasefire in Gaza began.
The Israeli army said that the three men – Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon and Keith Siegel – had been given to Israeli forces in Gaza, and would be taken for a medical assessment in the hospitals of Israel. In return, Israel should release 183 Palestinian prisoners.
In a new stage in the two-week ceasefire, a group of sick and injured Palestinians should leave Gaza later on Saturday thanks to the Rafah passage to Egypt, which was closed since Israeli forces in took control during their offensive in the enclave last May.
The six -week truce is The first part From a complex agreement in three stages defeated by mediators led by the United States which has put the hope of end to hostilities in Gaza.
The 15-month war has become the deadliest series of fighting in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leaving Gaza in ruins, consuming Israeli society and bringing the Middle East to the edge of a large-scale war
Bibas, 35, and Kalderon, 54, a double French-Israeli national, were both seized with members of the Kibbutz family of Nir Oz, which is less than two kilometers from Gaza, during the shock of October 7, 2023 War. Siegel, a 65 -year -old Israeli, was seized with his wife Aviva from Kibbutz from Kfar Aza.
Two of Kalderon’s children, Erez and Sahar, who were kidnapped with him, were released during the only previous truce in the war in late 2023, just like Aviva Siegel. However, the wife of Bibas Shiri and their two children, Ariel and Kfir, were not returned.
At only nine months, Kfir Bibas was the youngest hostage to be seized, and images of Shiri clinging to him and his four -year -old brother Ariel while the family was kidnapped has become one of the lasting images in Israel of the attack on Hamas.
Hamas said at the start of the war that the three had been killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza. Israeli officials have always said that they could not verify the complaint, but expressed serious concerns about their fate.
In total, Hamas activists killed 1,200 people on October 7, according to Israeli officials and seized 250 hostages.
Israel responded with a devastating assault against Gaza who killed more than 47,000 people, according to Palestinian officials, moved most of the inhabitants of 2.3 million from the pick and stoke a humanitarian disaster.
About 100 hostages were released during the 2023 truce, while a handful was saved by Israeli forces. Israel has also recovered the bodies from several hostages. Before the exchange on Saturday, 82 hostages – at least half of which would have died – stayed in Gaza.
In total, Hamas was to publish 33 hostages in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners under the first stage of the agreement. But Israeli officials said this week that Hamas had informed that eight of the 33 – including women, children, sick and the elderly – died.
During the second phase – on which Israel and Hamas should start to negotiate in the coming days – Hamas is supposed to release all the remaining living hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the total withdrawal of Israeli Gaza troops and a permanent end until the war.
The third and last phase will imply the return of the remaining bodies of deceased hostages and the reconstruction of Gaza.