Hamas has announced the names of three Israeli hostages to be released on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners after a delay that underlined the obstacles hanging over a fragile deal meant to end the war in Gaza.
Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, both taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during the cross-border Hamas-led attack on October 7th, 2023, and Or Levy, abducted that day from the Nova music festival, will be handed over on Saturday, Hamas said.
The Hamas media office said Israel was expected to free 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange, including 18 who have been serving life sentences, 54 serving long sentences and 111 who were detained in the Gaza Strip during the war.
Earlier the Palestinian militant group accused Israel of breaching their ceasefire accord and held off announcing the names of the three Israelis until a deadline of 4pm local time had passed. It was not immediately clear whether the delay would affect the scheduled exchange on Saturday.
Hamas accused Israel of delaying the entry of hundreds of trucks carrying food and other humanitarian supplies agreed under the truce deal that took effect on January 19th, and holding back all but a fraction of the tents and mobile homes needed to provide shelter to people returning to their bombed-out homes.
Cogat, the Israeli military agency that is overseeing the aid deliveries into Gaza, denied the accusation.
The spat compounds the uncertainty around the ceasefire that had already mounted following US president Donald Trump’s surprise announcement this week that he expected Gaza to be taken over by the United States.
Mr Trump said on Tuesday he wanted to move the population of Gaza to a third country such as Egypt or Jordan and place the small coastal enclave under US control to be developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
“We’re in no rush on it,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday, referring to his Gaza plan.
So far, 13 Israeli hostages of the 33 children, women and older men set to be released in the first, 42-day phase of the agreement have come home, and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been released in exchange. Five Thai hostages have also been returned.
Work on the second stage of the multiphase agreement, aimed at securing the release of about 60 male hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, has begun and an Israeli negotiating team was expected to fly on Saturday to Doha, Israeli media reported on Friday.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages, according to Israel. It is the country’s heaviest loss of life in a single day since the founding of the state in 1948.
In response, Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the narrow enclave. – Reuters
