Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah on Saturday, live television showed.
The militant group released Ohad Ben Ami, 56, and Eli Sharabi, 52, both taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during the cross-border Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and Or Levy, 34, abducted that day from the Nova music festival in southern Israel.
In exchange, Israel began to release 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people and including 18 serving life sentences and 111 detained in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas.
A bus carrying Palestinians released from Israel’s Ofer prison arrived in the occupied West Bank, live footage showed.
Dozens masked and armed Hamas fighters were deployed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, at the site where the group handed over the Israeli hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Crowds of people gathered at the site, where the ICRC vehicles waited to collect the hostages and transport them to Israeli forces in Gaza, who will then take them into Israel.
For families of the hostages who have been held incommunicado in Gaza for more than a year, the wait has been a roller-coaster of dread and hope as the moments of reunion drew near.
“I can’t even start to describe the emotions, the excitement, how happy we are that it’s finally close to be over,” said Michael Levy, brother of Or Levy, who lost his wife in the Oct. 7 attack and has a three-year-old son.
“We are waiting to hug him, waiting to see Almog (Levy’s son), hugging his father again.”
Other hostages also face a harsh return. Sharabi’s two teenage daughters and his British-born wife were slain in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where one in 10 residents was killed.
“We are counting the minutes, the seconds and we just want him to be here already,” said Astrid Dafan-van Dien, a friend of Sharabi, “although it will be very difficult because of Lianne (Sharabi’s wife) and the girls.”
The exchange is the latest in a series of swaps since the truce began on Jan. 19. So far, 13 Israeli and five Thai hostages abducted during the Hamas attack have been set free, along with 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Despite hiccups, a 42-day ceasefire and hostage-for-prisoner exchange worked out with U.S. backing and mediation by Egypt and Qatar has held up since it took effect nearly three weeks ago.
U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested Palestinians be relocated to turn Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’ Larry Garber, a former U.S. Agency for International Development mission director for West Bank-Gaza, says Trump’s words are ‘dangerous’ because they could interfere with Phase 3 of the ceasefire deal, which includes implementation of the reconstruction plan in Gaza.
But fears the deal might collapse before all the hostages are free have grown since U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise call for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and for the enclave to be handed to the United States and developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Arab states and Palestinian groups have rejected the proposal, which critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Alaa Al-Hasanat, a 25-year-old soldier with Gaza’s Qassam Brigades, spoke to CBC in Deir al-Balah, saying that “Hamas is back and stronger than before” and Palestinians will not be leaving.
“Regarding Trump and the question of displacement, we lived 475 days of genocide … but we will stay in Gaza,” he said.
Israel has rejected accusations of genocide by saying it abides by international law and has a right to defend itself after the Hamas attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, welcomed Trump’s intervention and his defence minister ordered the military to make plans to allow Palestinians who wished to leave Gaza to do so.
Under the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli children, women and sick, wounded and older men are to be released during an initial phase in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Negotiations on a second phase began this week aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation for a final end to the war.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages.
In response, Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated much of the narrow enclave.