KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas militants freed three male hostages held for more than a year in the Gaza Strip on Saturday and Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in the fourth such exchange of a ceasefire deal that has halted 15 months of intense fighting.
Militants handed Yarden Bibas and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon to Red Cross officials in the southern city of Khan Younis, while American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, looking pale and thin, was released to the Red Cross later Saturday morning in Gaza City to the north.
All three were abducted during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war. Their release brings to 18 the number of hostages released since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19.
The releases were quick and orderly, in contrast to chaotic scenes that unfolded on Thursday when armed militants appeared to struggle to hold back a crowd during a hostage release. In both of Saturday’s releases, masked and armed militants stood in lines as the hostages walked onto a stage and waved before being led off and handed over to the Red Cross.
In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, thousands of people gathered to watch the releases being transmitted live on a large screen, waving signs and cheering.
Shortly after Siegel arrived in Israel, a bus departed Ofer Military Prison with some 32 prisoners bound for the West Bank. Crowds of well-wishers greeted the bus, cheering and hoisting the released prisoners on their shoulders in scenes of jubilation.
The Israeli Prison Authority said all 183 Palestinian prisoners slated for release Saturday had been freed. Most, including 111 arrested after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, were released to Gaza. Just over two dozen returned to cheering crowds in the occupied West Bank. Another seven serving life sentences were transferred to Egypt ahead of their deportation.
Ceasefire brings respite to battered Gaza
The ceasefire is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. The deal has held for two weeks, allowing for increased aid to flow into the tiny coastal territory and for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the remnants of their homes in the north of the strip.
During the truce's six-week first phase, a total of 33 Israeli hostages are to be freed in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says it has received information from Hamas that eight of those hostages were either killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack or have died in captivity.
Also on Saturday, a group of 50 sick and wounded Palestinian children left Gaza for treatment through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, in the first opening of the enclave's sole exit since Israel captured it nine months ago. A European Union civilian mission was deployed Friday to prepare for the reopening.
The reopening of Rafah marked another key step in the first phase of the ceasefire.
Israel and Hamas are set next week to begin negotiating a second phase of the ceasefire, which calls for releasing the remaining hostages and extending the truce indefinitely. The war could resume in early March if an agreement is not reached.
Israel says it is still committed to destroying Hamas, even after the militant group reasserted its rule over Gaza within hours of the latest ceasefire. A key far-right partner in Netanyahu’s coalition is calling for the war to resume after the ceasefire’s first phase.
Hamas says it won’t release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Families and neighbors celebrate return of hostages
Siegel, 65, originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, along with his wife, Aviva Siegel. She was released during a brief 2023 ceasefire and has waged a high-profile campaign to free Keith and other hostages.
There were sighs of relief and cheers in a living room where members of the kibbutz watched Siegel's release. Many of those in the room were family friends, who applauded upon seeing Siegel, while some teared up.
Meanwhile, the release of Bibas, 35, brought renewed attention to the fate of his wife, Shiri, and their two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were 4 years old and 9 months old when they were abducted. All four were captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Kfir was the youngest of about 250 people taken captive on Oct. 7, and his plight quickly came to represent the helplessness and anger the hostage-taking stirred in Israel, where the Bibas family has become a household name.
Hamas has said Shiri and her sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israel has not confirmed that. Gal Hirsch, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s special coordinator for returning the hostages, said Israel has “grave concern for the lives” of Shiri and her sons, and pleaded with negotiators to provide information on their situation.
Kalderon, 54, was also captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
In Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv, Kalderon's family hugged and cheered as they saw the images of him climbing onto the stage in Khan Younis and being transferred to the Red Cross.
“Ofer is coming home!” they said, arms lifted to the sky.
Kalderon’s two children, Erez and Sahar, were abducted alongside him and released during the November 2023 ceasefire. Family members said they weren’t able to recover from their ordeal until their father returned.
“We are sorry it took so long, Ofer,” said Eyal Kalderon. “We will soon be a whole family again. We hope other families will soon feel like this, until the last family.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said France “shares in the relief and joy” of Kalderon's return after 483 days of “unimaginable hell,” adding that France would continue doing all it can to secure the release of another French Israeli hostage still being held in Gaza.
More than 100 of the hostages abducted on Oct. 7 were released during the weeklong Nov. 2023 ceasefire. About 80 more remain in Gaza, at least a third of them believed dead.
In the Oct. 7 attack that started the war, some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory air and ground war, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were militants.
The Israeli military says it killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in residential neighborhoods.
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Isseid contributed from Beitunia, West Bank. Moshe Edri at Reim military base, Israel and Paz Bar in Kfar Saba, Israel, contributed.
Mohammad Jahjouh And Imad Isseid, The Associated Press