My apologies for mislabeling the Headline to this post….
Hamas has freed three Israeli hostages from Gaza and Israel has released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in its custody, the sixth exchange in a fragile month-old ceasefire that almost collapsed earlier this week.
On Saturday morning, Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad deployed about 200 fighters to take part in a choreographed handover ceremony in a square in the southern town of Khan Younis.
The three hostages – the Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, the Israeli-Argentinian Iair Horn and the Israeli-Russian Sasha Troufanov, seized from Nir Oz kibbutz in the 7 October 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war – were forced to read statements from a stage in front of a crowd before they were handed over to the Red Cross.
The stage bore a poster which showed Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound, visible through a hole in the wall of a destroyed building, along with the slogan: “No displacement except to Jerusalem”, an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s proposal that Palestinians in Gaza be relocated to other countries…
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Hamas freed three Israeli hostages from captivity in Gaza on Saturday, including an American Israeli dual citizen, prolonging a fragile cease-fire with Israel that appeared to be teetering earlier this week.
Israel said it had released 369 Palestinian prisoners in exchange, concluding the sixth such swap under the cease-fire deal.
The Palestinian captors forced the Israelis to mount a stage in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and give speeches in Hebrew against a backdrop of portraits of Hamas leaders. The Israelis were thinner and paler than when they were abducted, but they appeared to be in better condition than the emaciated captives released by Hamas last week.
Rifle-toting militants affiliated with Hamas and another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, stood nearby. Some carried Israeli weapons, part of the carefully choreographed theatrics that have also been on display in past releases.
The gunmen did not, however, prod the men into thanking their captors, as happened last week in scenes that shocked Israelis already outraged over their gaunt condition.
The three Israeli civilians were abducted from the Israeli border village of Nir Oz during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the war in Gaza. They are Sasha Troufanov, 29; Iair Horn, 46; and Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, one of the few American citizens who was still held in Gaza.
Hundreds of people gathered in a Tel Aviv square to watch the televised release, cheering, waving posters with the faces of the hostages and shedding tears of joy.
The Palestinian prisoners who were released included 36 serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis. A first batch of 10 released prisoners arrived in the city of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. As they stepped off the bus, they were handed jackets to cover the sweatshirts that their jailers had made them wear before they were freed. The sweatshirts bore a phrase in Arabic: “We shall neither forget nor forgive.”
The successful exchange is likely to prop up the cease-fire, at least for a time. The truce wobbled this week after Hamas threatened to delay the hostage release. It accused Israel of violating the deal, including by not sending sufficient tents and other aid into Gaza.
Israel threatened to resume the war if Hamas did not relent. By Friday, both sides signaled that the dispute had been resolved for now.
Here’s what else to know:
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Phase 2: Israel and Hamas were supposed to start negotiations on the second part of the deal — including an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces — last week. But there has been little indication that they have begun serious talks. The lull has prompted serious worries about the future of the cease-fire, even though the latest impasse was resolved.
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Held in Gaza: The sides have agreed to the release of 33 Israelis who were taken hostage at the beginning of the war before the deal needs to be extended. If the deal collapses at that point, roughly 60 of those still unaccounted for — many of them presumed dead — would remain in Gaza…
Feb 15, 2025 – ISW Press
Russian cargo vessels have continued to evacuate military assets from the port of Tartus as Russia negotiates its presence in Syria with the interim government.
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