Israel and Hamas have made a prisoner exchange, the last exchange under the agreement to obtain a cease-fire in the war in Gaza.
Hamas released three Israeli captives on Saturday morning, while Israel’s prison service confirmed that he had released 183 Palestinians, affirming in a statement that they “had been transferred from several prisons across the country” before Be taken to occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
The exchange is the fifth under the agreement of the truce, which took effect on January 19 but already seems to be more and more fragile in the proposal of the American president Donald Trump to force the Palestinians of the besieged enclave.
Carefully managed release
Hamas gave the Israeli captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross during a carefully managed event on Saturday morning.
The three male civilians – Eli Sharabi, 52, or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 years old – were released under the first phase of the truce, which takes place until the beginning of March.
Before the transfer, they appeared on a scene installed in Deir El-Balah in the center of Gaza, surrounded by Qassam brigades fighters and to keep liberation certificates.
The banners on the stage are read: “We are the flood, we are war the next day.”
Tareq Abu Azzoum of Tel Aviv Tribune reported that the crowds had sang their support for the Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
A bus carrying Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons under the Gaza ceasefire agreement arrived in Ramallah in an occupied West Bank, where they were greeted by a jubilant crowd and a Palestinian security personnel. pic.twitter.com/fpgp1uv3ym
– Tel Aviv Tribune English (@Ajenglish) February 8, 2025
Shortly after the Israelis release, television images showed a bus leaving OFER prison in occupied West Bank. Dozens of released Palestinians landed shortly after in the city of Ramallah for jubilation scenes on the pending crowd.
Seven Palestinians among the liberated persons were admitted to hospitals when they arrived in Ramallah, the company of Palestinian prisoners said.
Seven will be transferred to Egypt before continuing the expulsion.
Among the Palestinians who freed themselves were senior personalities from Hamas. Iyad Abu Shakhdam, 49, was imprisoned for almost 21 years for his involvement in Hamas’ attacks against Israel in the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.
Jamal Al-Tawil, an eminent Hamas politician in occupied West Bank and former mayor of the village of El-Bireh, near Ramallah, spent nearly two decades in and out of Israeli detention, more recently without charges.
Frail and glove
In the photo as they were released, the Israelis trio appeared glove and frail after their 16 -month test.
“The disturbing images of the release of Ohad, Eli and where another austere and painful proof which leaves no room for doubt – there is no time to waste for hostages! We have to do them all, until the last hostages. Now! “Said the hostage forum and missing families in a press release.
The three were quickly given to Israeli military and intelligence agents, according to an army statement, to be “escorted” in Israel by elite units.
Hamas released three Israeli captives and handed them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Deir El El-Balah in the center of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/wrozstho5f
– Tel Aviv Tribune English (@Ajenglish) February 8, 2025
Sharabi and Ben Ami were withdrawn from Kibbutz Be’eri, a agricultural community targeted by Hamas during his attack against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken in captivity. Levy was removed from the Nova Music Festival.
Hamdah Salhut of Tel Aviv Tribune said that the first captive had released, speaking on stage in Hebrew in the middle of the armed fighters in Hamas, called on the Israeli government to follow the phases two and three of the agreement. “The majority of the Israeli public want it too,” she said.
In the hostage’s place of Tel Aviv, the Israelis waited “with a breath,” she said. “It has become a symbolic place for the members of the family of captives … and for the general Israeli public, who campaigned for their release and tried to put pressure on (Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu … to join this agreement . “
Cisjordanie raids
Overnight, the Israeli army would have made raids through the West Bank in the family houses of some of the Palestinians taking place.
The Palestinian Information Center said that the houses of the village of Deir Nidham, northwest of Ramallah, were among the targets while “dozens” of people from the city of Qalqilya were arrested.
⬅️RANGE شهد من اعتقال قوات الاحتلال عشرات الشبان خلال اقتحام بلدة عزون شرق قلقيلية مساء الأمس. pic.twitter.com/sojrz7wjdo
– المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@Palinfoar) February 7, 2025
Second unclear phase
The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire agreement, which asked the release of 33 Israeli captives and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, has so far held despite a heel on Trump’s proposal to release Gaza of its inhabitants and to take control of the territory.
Until now, 18 Israeli captives and 550 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged. But it is feared that Trump’s plan can complicate talks during the second more difficult phase, when Hamas must release the remaining captives in exchange for a lasting ceasefire.
It is believed that the armed group has little motivation to give up the lever effect that the captives represent if there is a perspective that the United States and Israel would then embark on an ethnic cleansing of the enclave.
A third phase of the agreement requires the reconstruction of Gaza, but US officials have also recently raised significant doubts about it.
The first phase of the ceasefire also includes the return of the Palestinians to the north of Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid in the territory. Last week, the injured Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt for the first time since May.
It is not clear if Israel and Hamas began to negotiate the second phase, and it is feared that the devastating war, which killed more than 61,709 people in Gaza, a figure which now includes at least 14,222 missing and presumed dead, could resume early at the beginning of the first March.
More than 100 of the captives that Hamas have taken were released during a week-long ceasefire in November 2023. More than 70 are still in Gaza, however, at least a third would be dead.