Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, as well as five Thai nationals during the next hostage release, slated for Thursday, officials from Israel and Hamas said as a tenuous ceasefire between the two sides moves ahead.
The officials named the Israeli women as Arbel Yehoud, 29, Agam Berger, 19, and the man as Gadi Moses, 80. The officials, who spoke on Wednesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the hostages’ families had approved the publication of their names.
The identities of the Thai nationals were not immediately known. A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that set off the war in Gaza.
The expected release will keep up the momentum of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and the militant Hamas group that began earlier this month and which paused the 15-month-long war in Gaza. As part of the deal, Hamas is releasing hostages in phases in exchange for freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The deal had been negotiated for months under the Biden administration but was finally sealed after President Donald Trump threatened there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages weren’t returned.
Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in Israel on Wednesday and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads to Washington next week to meet Trump — the first foreign leader to meet the US president in his second term in office.
Thursday’s release wasn’t originally scheduled but came as a result of a standoff between Israel and Hamas over the identities of the hostages released over the weekend.
Israel had demanded that Ms Yehoud, a civilian, be part of that group and when she wasn’t freed, Israel held up the movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians looking to return to what is left of their homes in the war-battered north of Gaza..
International mediation efforts brought about the additional release on Thursday and cleared the way for Palestinians to stream north. Another release is slated for Saturday, which Netanyahu’s office said would free male hostages. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners are set to be freed both Thursday and Saturday.
The pause in fighting has exposed the vastness of the destruction caused to the urban landscape in Gaza, prompting a suggestion from Mr Trump over the weekend that neighbouring Jordan and Egypt take in displaced Palestinians.
Earlier Wednesday, Egypt, an important U.S. ally, rejected Mr Trump's suggestion defying a US president who has shown little patience for dissent from international partners.
Over the weekend, Mr Trump told reporters that Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians from war-torn Gaza, an idea that has long been rejected by those countries and the Palestinians themselves because they say it would undermine the notion of Palestinian statehood and foment instability in their states.
AP
