Hamas is set to free 3 Israelis and 5 Thais in next hostage release, officials say
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JERUSALEM — Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, as well as five Thai nationals during the next hostage release, set for Thursday, officials from Israel and Hamas said as a tenuous cease-fire between the sides moves ahead.
The officials named the Israeli women as Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Agam Berger, 19, and the man as Gadi Moses. The officials, who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the hostages’ families had approved the publication of their names.
The identities of the Thai nationals were not immediately known. A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that set off the war in Gaza.
The expected release will keep up the momentum of the fragile cease-fire between Israel and the militant Hamas group that began this month and paused the 15-month-long war in the Gaza Strip.
As part of the deal, Hamas is releasing hostages in phases in exchange for freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Four female Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hamas have returned to Israel after militants paraded them in front of a crowd of thousands in Gaza City.
Hostages and prisoners will be released twice this week
The deal had been negotiated for months under the Biden administration, which sealed the deal alongside Trump team negotiators days before the new president took office.
President Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in Israel on Wednesday and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu will head to Washington next week to visit Trump — the first foreign leader to meet the president in his second term in office.
Thursday’s release wasn’t originally scheduled but came as a result of a standoff between Israel and Hamas over hostages who were released over the weekend.
Israel had demanded that Yehoud, a civilian, be part of that group, and when she wasn’t, Israel held upthe movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians looking to return to what is left of their homes and neighborhoods in war-battered northern Gaza.
International mediation efforts brought about the additional release Thursday and cleared the way for Palestinians to stream north. Another release is scheduled for Saturday, which Netanyahu’s office said would free male hostages. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners are set to be freed both Thursday and Saturday.
Three hostages held by Hamas have been released after 471 days in captivity as part of a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group
Egypt rejects Trump’s suggestion that it take in Palestinians
The pause in fighting has exposed the vastness of the destruction caused to the urban landscape in Gaza, prompting a suggestion from Trump over the weekend that neighboring Jordan and Egypt take in displaced Palestinians, as he wanted to “clean out” Gaza.
Earlier Wednesday, Egypt, an important U.S. ally, rejected Trump’s suggestion, defying a president who is typically riled by dissent from international partners.
Over the weekend, Trump told reporters that Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians displaced by the war, an idea that has long been rejected by those countries and the Palestinians because they say it would undermine the notion of Palestinian statehood and foment instability in their states.
Trump on Saturday said he would urge Egypt and Jordan to accept people from Gaza so that “we just clean out that whole thing,” calling the territory “a demolition site.”
Trump said he would urge the leaders of both countries, key allies of the United States and major recipients of American aid in the region, to accept the idea, saying the resettlement could be temporary or long term.
It is not clear whether Trump could force Egypt or Jordan to agree, but he has in his first days in office and on the campaign threatened hefty tariffs against American allies to get his way.
his way.
Doctors in Israel prepare for hostages’ return from Gaza with the expectation that many are likely to have severe, life-threatening complications.
In his first public comments since Trump floated the suggestion Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi called the idea “an injustice” that Egypt would not be party to.
In a news conference in Cairo with the visiting Kenyan president, Sisi said the transfer of Palestinians “can’t ever be tolerated or allowed.”
“The solution to this issue is the two-state solution. It is the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said. “The solution is not to remove the Palestinian people from their place.”
The Egyptian president said his government would work with the Trump administration to achieve peace “that is based on the two-state solution” between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump has not signaled clear support for a two-state solution, and Netanyahu has long opposed it.
Palestinians fear they may never return if they leave
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not say how many of the dead were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The fighting has obliterated vast areas of Gaza, displacing some 90% of its 2.3 million residents, many of them multiple times.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent the past year trying to mediate an end to the 15-month war and secure the release of dozens of hostages.
During its attack, Hamas took 250 people hostage and killed roughly 1,200, mostly civilians.
The theme of displacement has been recurrent in Palestinian history and the importance of holding on to one’s land is an integral element of the Palestinian identity. Palestinians fear that if they leave their land, they may never be allowed to return.
Those fears have been compounded by far-right members of Israel’s government who support rebuilding Jewish settlements in Gaza, from which Israel previously withdrew troops and settlers in 2005. Netanyahu says that idea is unrealistic.
Egypt and Jordan have each made peace with Israel but support the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. They fear that the permanent displacement of Gaza’s population could make that impossible.
Egypt and Jordan receive billions of dollars in American aid each year.
Associated Press writers Goldenberg and Magdy reported from Jerusalem and Cairo, respectively.
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