On Saturday, the Palestinian militant group Hamas released three Israeli hostages and exchanged them for dozens of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, marking the latest stage of a truce aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli dual national, and Yarden Bibas were handed over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before being transferred to Israel. Israeli-American Keith Siegel was separately handed over at the Gaza City seaport.
Hours later, 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released in the exchange. Among them, 150 arrived in Gaza, while 32 got off a bus in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where they were greeted by large crowds. One freed prisoner will be exiled to Egypt, according to Hamas prisoners’ media office.
“I feel joy despite the journey of pain and hardship that we lived,” said Ali Al-Barghouti, who was serving two life sentences in an Israeli jail.
At the newly reopened Rafah crossing on the southern border, children suffering from cancer and heart conditions were among the first Palestinian patients to be allowed to leave Gaza for medical treatment in Egypt. However, Mohammad Zaqout, a senior official in Gaza’s health ministry, criticized the limited number of patients allowed to travel for treatment, saying that around 18,000 people needed better healthcare.
In Israel, crowds gathered at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv to watch the release of the Israeli hostages on giant outdoor screens, mixing cheers and applause with tears as the three men appeared.
Saturday’s handover saw none of the chaotic scenes that overshadowed an earlier transfer on Thursday, when Hamas guards struggled to shield hostages from a surging crowd in Gaza.
But it was once again an occasion for a show of force by uniformed Hamas fighters who paraded in the area where the handovers took place, demonstrating their re-established dominance in Gaza despite heavy losses during the war.
