Hamas said on Friday it would free the father of the youngest hostages seized in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and two others including a dual US citizen and a dual French citizen in the next exchange of Gaza hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel and Ofer Kalderon will be handed over on Saturday, said Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group, in a post on his Telegram channel.
Bibas is the father of baby Kfir, only nine months old when he was kidnapped, and Ariel, who was four at the time of the cross-border attack.
Israeli-American Siegel, who was taken hostage with his wife Aviva, was seen in a video released by Hamas last year. His wife was released in the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange in November 2023.
Kalderon’s two children Erez and Sahar, abducted alongside him, were also freed in the first exchange. The French-Israeli national’s family said they were waiting with “immense joy mixed with paralysing anguish” for his release.
In exchange for the hostages, Israel is set to release 183 prisoners on Saturday in the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange under the Gaza ceasefire deal, a Palestinian advocacy group said, more than doubling the previous reported figure.
“The updated number of prisoners to be released tomorrow is 183,” said Palestinian Prisoners’ Club spokeswoman Amani Sarahneh on Friday, after previously announcing that 90 prisoners would be released from Israeli jails.
The advocacy group published two separate lists of names due for release on Saturday. The first comprised 72 prisoners arrested before Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
A second list of inmates to be freed contained 111 names of Gazans detained after the attack that sparked the war in the Palestinian territory.
The Gaza ceasefire has enabled a surge in international humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians suffering dire supply shortages and the first Palestinians – injured civilians and militant fighters – were due to travel to Egypt on Saturday through the newly reopened Rafah crossing.
But the fragile calm could be jeopardised if Israel prevents operations in Gaza by the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA after banning it from contact with Israel, UNRWA communications chief Juliette Touma told a briefing in Geneva on Friday. For now, the agency’s work in Gaza was continuing, she said.
More talks on the implementation of the second stage of the deal, due to begin by February 4, are meant to open the way to the release of over 60 other hostages, including men of military age, and a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
If that succeeds, a formal end to the war could follow along with talks on the mammoth challenge of reconstructing Gaza.
Read moreHundreds of thousands of Palestinians return to devastated northern Gaza
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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