Family members and supporters of Israeli hostage Agam Berger, a soldier who was seized from her Army base in southern Israel during the deadly October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, react as they watch a broadcast of Ms. Berger during her release, in Holon, Israel on January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Hamas began the process of freeing three more Israeli hostages and five Thai captives on Thursday (January 30, 2025), the third such release since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took hold earlier this month. Israel was expected to release another 110 Palestinian prisoners.
The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, whose October 7, 2023, attack into Israel sparked the fighting. It has held despite a dispute earlier this week over the sequence in which the hostages were released.
Hamas handed female Israeli soldier Agam Berger, 20, to the Red Cross at a ceremony in the heavily destroyed urban refugee camp of Jabaliya in northern Gaza. The Israeli government later confirmed that Berger was with its forces.
Palestinian Hamas militants release female Israeli soldier Agam Berger held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
Another ceremony was planned in the southern city of Khan Younis, in front of the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Both were attended by hundreds of people, including masked militants and onlookers.
Also Read | Israel says it won’t complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by January 26
In Israel, people cheered, clapped and whistled at a square in Tel Aviv where supporters of the hostages watched Ms. Berger’s handover on big screens next to a large clock that’s counted the days the hostages have been in captivity. Some held signs saying: “Agam we’re waiting for you at home.”
Ms. Berger was among five young, female soldiers abducted in the October 7, 2023, attack. The other four were released on Saturday (January 25, 2025). The other two Israelis set to be released Thursday (January 30, 2025) are Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man.
Released Israeli hostages, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag and Daniella Gilboa, who were soldiers seized from their army base in southern Israel during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, watch as Agam Berger, a fellow hostage is passed over to the Red Cross, at Beilinson Schneider complex in Petah Tikva, Israel in a handout photo obtained by Reuters on January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Moses, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, and who are to be released as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, are seen at an unspecified location in this screengrab from video released January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
There was no official confirmation of the identities of the Thai nationals who will be released.
A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas’ attack. Twenty-three Thais were among more than 100 hostages released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says eight Thais remain in captivity, two of whom are believed to be dead.
Of the people set to be released from prisons in Israel, 30 are serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis. Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent former militant leader and theatre director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 before being rearrested days later, is also among those set to be released.
Israel said Ms. Yehoud was supposed to have been freed Saturday (January 25, 2025) and delayed the opening of crossings to northern Gaza when she was not.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the ceasefire after a year of tough negotiations, resolved the dispute with an agreement that Ms. Yehoud would be released Thursday (January 30, 2025). Another three hostages, all men, are set to be freed Saturday (January 31, 2025) along with dozens more Palestinian prisoners.
Also Read | Israel kills 2 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, officials say
On Monday (January 27, 2025), Israel began allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, the most heavily destroyed part of the territory, and hundreds of thousands streamed back. Many found only mounds of rubble where their homes had been.
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.
Palestinians have cheered the release of the prisoners, who they widely see as heroes who have sacrificed for the cause of ending Israel’s decades-long 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.
Explained | Will the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip hold?
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 Prime Minister Benjamin 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.
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.
Also Read | Gaza ceasefire traps Netanyahu between Trump and far-right allies
Israel’s ensuing air and ground war 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 neighbourhoods and put military infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.
The Israeli offensive has transformed entire neighbourhoods into mounds of grey 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.
Published – January 30, 2025 02:58 pm IST
