Three high-profile Israeli hostages are set to be released by Hamas on Saturday, while Palestinian authorities say Israel has agreed to release dozens of prisoners, in the fourth round of exchanges during the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The six-week phase one truce calls for the release of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 prisoners, as well as the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid to the devastated territory.
Israel and Hamas are set next week to begin negotiating a second phase of the ceasefire, which calls for releasing the remaining hostages and extending the truce indefinitely. The war could resume in early March if an agreement is not reached.
Palestinian health authorities in Gaza also announced that the long-shuttered Rafah border crossing with Egypt would reopen on Saturday for thousands of Palestinians who desperately need medical care — a breakthrough that signals the ceasefire agreement continues to gain traction.
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The hostages to be released, according to Hamas and Israel, are: Yarden Bibas, 35; American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65; and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon, 54. All were abducted during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war.
News that Yarden Bibas, 35, is among the hostages set to be freed on Saturday brought renewed attention to the uncertain fate of the Bibas family. Hamas says his kidnapped wife and two young boys were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israel has not verified the claim.
A video of their abduction by armed men showed Shiri swaddling in a blanket her two redheaded boys — Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months old at the time. Kfir was the youngest of about 250 people taken captive on Oct. 7, and his plight quickly came to represent the helplessness and anger the hostage-taking stirred in Israel, where the Bibas family has become a household name.
Like Bibas, Kalderon was also captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His two children and ex-wife, Hadas, were also taken, but they were freed during the 2023 ceasefire.
Keith Siegel, originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, along with his wife, Aviva Siegel. She was released during the 2023 ceasefire and has waged a high-profile campaign to free Keith and other hostages.
Today’s exchange is part of a deal that paused fighting in Gaza on Jan. 19. Israeli forces have pulled back from most of Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return to what remains of their homes and humanitarian groups to surge assistance.
It calls for Hamas to release a total of 33 hostages, including women, children, older adults and sick or wounded men, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says Hamas has confirmed that eight of the hostages to be released in this phase are dead.
The initial Phase One ceasefire paused fighting for six weeks, calling for the sides to use that time to negotiate a second phase in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages and the ceasefire would continue indefinitely. The war could resume in early March if an agreement is not reached.
Negotiating a phase two deal could be difficult. Hamas says it won’t release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, after reasserting its rule over Gaza within hours of the truce.
Meanwhile, Israel says it is still committed to destroying Hamas, and a key far-right partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is already calling for the war to resume after the ceasefire’s first phase.
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