KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Eight more hostages were freed by Hamas-led militants on Thursday in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly delayed the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners by Israel and underscored the fragility of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that began earlier this month.
The swap of hostages for prisoners is a key part of a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. Militants are still holding dozens more hostages abducted in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the war.
Also on Thursday, Hamas confirmed the death of Mohammed Deif, head of its military wing and one of the alleged masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack, six months after Israel announced he was killed in an airstrike in Gaza.
The militants in Gaza freed three Israelis and five Thai nationals, who were working on farms in southern Israel when taken hostage more than 15 months ago.
The Palestinian prisoners released include 30 who were serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis; seven were allowed to return to the occupied West Bank, but the rest were being transferred to Egypt before further deportation.
Scenes of chaos as hostages are released
The release of prisoners came hours after a chaotic hostage handover in the Gaza Strip, where masked militants shuttled some captives through a rowdy crowd of thousands of Palestinians.
Hamas released seven of the hostages in front of the destroyed home of its slain leader, Yahya Sinwar, as thousands pressed in. The militant group called it a “message of determination,” but it triggered the latest in a series of disputes that have sent U.S. and Arab mediators scrambling to patch up the truce.
The first hostage — female soldier Agam Berger, 20 — was released after Hamas paraded her in front of a smaller crowd in the heavily destroyed urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Hours later, a chaotic scene unfolded at a handover of the other seven in the southern city of Khan Younis. Hundreds of militants from Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group arrived with a convoy, and thousands of people gathered to watch, some from the tilted rooftops of bombed-out buildings.
Footage showed hostage Arbel Yehoud, 29, looking stunned as masked militants hustled her through the shouting crowd, pushing people back. Also released were Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old Israeli man, and five Thai laborers. Both Yehoud and Moses are dual German-Israeli nationals.
Netanyahu condemned the “shocking scenes” and called on international mediators to ensure the safety of hostages in future releases.
Israel identified the Thai hostages released as: Watchara Sriaoun, 33; Pongsak Thaenna, 36; Sathian Suwannakham, 35; Surasak Rumnao, 32; and Bannawat Saethao, 27. Thai officials said they appeared to be in good health.
Twenty-three Thais were among more than 100 hostages released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says three Thais remain in captivity, two of whom are believed to be dead.
Yehoud had been at the center of a dispute earlier this week over the sequence in which the hostages would be released. The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the ceasefire after a year of tough negotiations, resolved it with an agreement that Yehoud would be released with the others on Thursday.
About 20 friends of Yehoud gathered in southern Israel watched as the tense scene unfolded on live television. Some cried. Others had their hands over their eyes or mouths. The crowd then burst into tears after she was turned over to the Red Cross.
The 80-year-old Gadi Moses looked stunned as he was led by Israeli soldiers to the area where he was set to reunite with his family. Footage released by the Israeli military showed his relatives bursting into the room, embracing the elderly man. His daughter exclaimed repeatedly, “my father, my father!”
Prisoners released in the West Bank to throngs of well-wishers
Scuffles erupted as the convoy of buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners departed from their Israeli prison in the West Bank. Palestinian teenagers threw stones outside the complex and Israeli forces fired tear gas as they tried to clear the area.
Three Palestinians were wounded in the confrontations outside the prison, according to Palestinian Red Crescent, which said Israeli forces had used gunfire and stun grenades to disperse crowds.
As Red Cross buses approached, the families of Palestinian prisoners caught their first glimpses of their loved ones through the bus windshields, some shattered in the melee of stone-throwing and tear gas-firing.
Zakaria Zubeidi — a prominent former militant leader and theater director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 before being rearrested days later — wore a grey prison jumpsuit and flashed a victory sign from inside one of the buses.
Crowds of Palestinians — the relatives and friends of released prisoners but also scores of jubilant supporters — mobbed buses carrying the prisoners. As soon as they stepped off the buses, the crowd hoisted the prisoners in the air.
Red Crescent medics said they would perform blood tests on the released prisoners. They didn’t know in what condition the prisoners were returning. Rights groups have described increasingly harsh conditions and treatment in Israeli jails since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Hamas confirms the death of a longtime leader
Arab television networks cut into livestreams of the Palestinian prisoner release to carry a press conference delivered by Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, who confirmed the death of Deif.
It was Hamas’ first statement on his condition since the Israeli military announced last August that he was killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza the month before. The military group also confirmed the deaths of four other members.
The Deif announcement culminated months of speculation about his fate. For years, he topped Israel’s most-wanted list.
The other militant leaders confirmed as dead by Hamas include: Marwan Issa, the second-in-command to Deif, who also helped mastermind the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel; and Rafaa Salameh, the Hamas commander in the southern city of Khan Younis. Israel had announced their deaths in targeted strikes last year.
Ceasefire holds for now but next phase will be harder
In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is set to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children, older adults and sick or wounded men, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says Hamas has confirmed that eight of the hostages to be released in this phase are dead.
A line of white buses carrying Palestinian prisoners set to be released Thursday left Ofer prison in the West Bank and made their way toward Beitunah, near the occupied West Bank City of Ramallah where relatives and celebrations awaited.
Palestinians have cheered the release of the prisoners, who they widely see as heroes who have sacrificed for the cause of ending Israel’s decadeslong occupation of lands they want for a future state.
Israeli forces have meanwhile pulled back from most of Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return to what remains of their homes and humanitarian groups to surge assistance.
The deal calls for Israel and Hamas to negotiate a second phase in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages and the ceasefire would continue 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 truce. A key far-right partner in Netanyahu’s coalition is already 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.
Tens of thousands killed
Hamas started the war when it sent thousands of fighters storming into Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250.
Israel’s ensuing air and ground war was among the deadliest and most destructive in decades. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, 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, and that it went to great lengths to try to spare civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in dense residential neighborhoods and put military infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.
The Israeli offensive has transformed entire neighborhoods into mounds of gray rubble, and it’s unclear how or when anything will be rebuilt. Around 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, with hundreds of thousands of people living in squalid tent camps or shuttered schools.
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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Krauss from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, contributed.
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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Mohammad Jahjouh, Wafaa Shurafa And Joseph Krauss, The Associated Press
