Hamas / Israel / Middle East…1/30/2025…8 More Israeli hostages Released…

“The Government of Israel embraces Agam Berger, a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Civilians Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Moshe Moses, 80, were the other two Israelis freed.

According to the agreement with Israel, Hamas was to release female civilian hostages first, sparking concern about Yehud’s condition when female soldiers were released before her last week.

Many Thai nationals work in agriculture in Israel, some in closed military zones where they are the only civilians. Forty-one Thai nationals were killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, The Washington Post previously reported.

The 110 Palestinian prisoners and detainees freed after the release of the hostages include 30 teenagers and 32 people sentenced to life imprisonment, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

Here’s what else to know

• President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told Axios that he expects rebuilding Gaza could take 10 to 15 years, adding that there was “almost nothing left of Gaza.” Trump last week suggested displacing Palestinians temporarily while “we just clean out that whole thing,” referring to the Gaza Strip.
• Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, met with Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday in Damascus, in the first visit by a foreign head of state to the country since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad. Officials said the two discussed reconstruction, among other issues, a priority for Syria as it emerges from nearly a decade and a half of civil war.
• More than 423,000 people have returned to northern Gaza since Monday, according to estimates cited by the U.N. humanitarian agency. Allowing residents to return to the north was a key demand of Hamas during negotiations ahead of the ceasefire agreement.
• Ten Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said, as Israel continues its operations in the West Bank. The U.N. humanitarian agency said Thursday that there has been a “drastic deterioration in the humanitarian and protection situation” in the West Bank…..

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