Hamas has released three Israeli captives held in Gaza, with the exchange of 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel to follow.
The captives were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at a carefully managed event on Saturday morning. The exchange is the fifth under the Gaza ceasefire deal, which appears increasingly fragile amid United States President Donald Trump’s proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians from the enclave.
The three civilian men – Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 – were released under the first phase of the truce, which runs until early March.
Ahead of the handover, the captives appeared on a stage set up in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, surrounded by Qassam Brigades fighters and holding up release certificates. Banners on the stage read: “We are the flood, we are the war’s next day.”
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported that crowds chanted their support for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing.
The trio being released appeared gaunt and frail following their 16 months ordeal.
“The disturbing images from the release of Ohad, Eli, and Or serve as yet another stark and painful evidence that leaves no room for doubt – there is no time to waste for the hostages! We must get them all out, down to the very last hostage. Now!” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in a statement.
They were swiftly handed to Israeli military and intelligence officers, according to a statement by the army, to be “escorted” to Israel by elite units.
Hamas has released three Israeli captives and handed them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah. pic.twitter.com/WrOZSTHO5f
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 8, 2025
Sharabi and Ben Ami were both taken from Kibbutz Be’eri, a farming community targeted by Hamas during its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken captive. Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said the first captive released, speaking on stage in Hebrew amid the armed Hamas fighters, called on the Israeli government to follow through with phase two and three of the deal. “The majority of the Israeli public wants this too,” she said.
On Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, Israelis waited “with baited breath”, she said. “This has become a symbolic place for family members of captives … and for the greater Israeli public, who has been campaigning for their release and trying to put pressure on [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu … to adhere to this deal.”
West Bank raids ahead of prisoner release
The 183 male Palestinian prisoners set to be released on the same day by Israel include senior Hamas figures, between the ages of 20 and 61. Seven will be transferred to Egypt ahead of further deportation.
Among those slated for release is Iyad Abu Shakhdam, 49, who was jailed for nearly 21 years over his involvement in Hamas attacks on Israel in the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.
Another is Jamal al-Tawil, a prominent Hamas politician in the occupied West Bank and former mayor of the village of el-Bireh, near Ramallah, who has spent nearly two decades in and out of Israeli detention.
Following his arrest in 2021, al-Tawil was held in administrative detention, a renewable six-month period in which suspects are held without charge or trial.
Overnight, the Israeli military is reported to have carried out raids across the West Bank on the family homes of Palestinians set for release.
⬅️مشهد 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
The Palestinian Information Center said that houses in the village of Deir Nidham, northwest of Ramallah were among the targets while “dozens” of people in the city of Qalqilya were arrested.
Second phase unclear
The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire agreement, which calls for 33 Israeli captives and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners to be released, has so far held despite uproar over Trump’s proposal to clear Gaza of its inhabitants and take over the territory.
So far, 18 Israeli captives and 550 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged. But it is feared that Trump’s plan could complicate talks over the second and more difficult phase when Hamas is to release the remaining captives in return for a lasting ceasefire.
However, the armed group is thought to have little motivation to give up that leverage should there be a prospect that the US and Israel would then embark on an ethnic cleansing of the enclave.
A third phase of the agreement calls for the reconstruction of Gaza, but US officials have also raised significant doubts over that now.
The first phase of the ceasefire also includes the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid to the territory. Last week, wounded Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt for the first time since May.
More than 100 of the captives that Hamas took were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. More than 70 are still in Gaza, however, at least a third are believed to be dead.
It is not clear whether Israel and Hamas have begun negotiating the second phase, and it is feared that the devastating war, which has killed more than 61,709 people in Gaza, a figure which now includes at least 14,222 missing and presumed dead, could resume in early March.
