Israel and Hamas are set to proceed today with the third exchange of hostages and prisoners, with the release of eight hostages – three Israelis and five Thais – held in the Gaza Strip, under a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the war in the Palestinian enclave after 15 months.
A fourth exchange is scheduled for Saturday, with the release of three hostages, according to the timetable announced by Israel yesterday, Wednesday.
But Hamas warned that subsequent hostage releases could be affected, accusing Israel of delaying the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, a charge Israel denied.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that it had received from the Palestinian movement the list of names of the hostages to be released today and the three men, all alive, who will be released on Saturday.
Two Israeli women, 20-year-old Agam Berger, who was captured on October 7, 2023 while serving her military service near the Gaza Strip, and a civilian, 29-year-old Arbel Yehud, who was captured in Kibbutz Niz Oz along with her fiancé's family, as well as an 80-year-old German-Israeli, Gandhi Mozes, will be released today.
Five Thais will also be released.
The time of their release is not known.
In exchange, Israel will release 110 Palestinian prisoners, including 32 serving life sentences, according to a Palestinian non-governmental organization. The freed prisoners, 20 of whom will be deported, will arrive in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank at around noon (local time and Greece time).
The family of Gandhi Mozes, a farmer who lost his partner in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, expressed their "emotion" yesterday in a statement, in which they thanked "the Israeli people for their support."
On Monday, Islamic Jihad, an armed group affiliated with Hamas, released a video featuring Arbel Yehud.
In it, the young woman appears visibly distressed, dressed in a hoodie. She states her identity, the date – Saturday, January 25 – and asks Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to do everything they can to free the hostages.
Seven Israeli women have already been released in exchange for 290 Palestinians, on January 19 – the first day of the ceasefire – and then on January 25.
The ceasefire agreement provides that in the first phase, which will last six weeks, 33 hostages will be released in exchange for 1.900 Palestinians, but Israeli authorities have stated that eight dead people are among these hostages.
The ceasefire has allowed humanitarian aid to enter the besieged Palestinian enclave, where the needs are enormous.
However, yesterday Hamas officials accused Israel of delaying the entry of aid, mainly "fuel, tents, caravans, heavy machinery" and warned that this "may affect the normal implementation of the agreement, including the exchange of prisoners."
Cogat, the Israeli agency responsible for political affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, called the reports “fake news.” According to it, “3.000 trucks had entered Gaza” from January 26 to midday Wednesday.
While almost all of the 2,4 million residents of the Palestinian enclave have been displaced by the war, since Monday hundreds of thousands have begun returning to their homes in the north, walking kilometers through the ruins.
Mohammed al-Faleh, a 33-year-old displaced person, said he found his house destroyed. To protect his family, he hastily built two walls with the rubble. “There is no cement, so I used mud. There are no roofs, so we will make a roof out of plastic,” he explained.
Source: protothema.gr
