Hamas released the first of eight Israeli and Thai hostages expected to be freed on Thursday after more than a year of captivity in Gaza, as the fragile cease-fire between the two sides held through its second week.
On Thursday morning, dozens of Hamas fighters in the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya released Agam Berger, a 20-year-old Israeli soldier who was abducted during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in a in a heavily choreographed ceremony that attempted to show that Hamas still controls Gaza.
In Tel Aviv, crowds of Israelis watching the release on a large screen clapped and cheered, but the celebration remained largely muted.
The Israeli government said a short time later that Ms. Berger had been transferred to Israeli forces.
Two other Israeli hostages are slated for release: Gadi Moses, 80, and Arbel Yehud, 29. Also expected to be released are five Thai hostages; neither Israel nor Hamas named them.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, militants were gathering in front of the destroyed home of Yahya Sinwar, one of the architects of the 2023 attack, in apparent preparation for another handover.
Under the terms of the cease-fire, Israel is expected to release 110 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages released on Thursday, including 32 serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis. One of them is Zakaria Zubeidi, who was a prominent militant in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank during the second intifada. He joined a 2021 prison break before being arrested again.
The exchange is the third as Israel and Hamas observe a six-week truce, part of a multiphase agreement that mediators hope will end the war in Gaza. More than 45,000 people have been killed there during Israel’s campaign against Hamas, according to Gazan health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
As part of the deal, Hamas committed to freeing at least 33 of the remaining 97 hostages in Gaza in exchange for the release of over 1,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel. This week, Israeli officials said they had received a list from Hamas indicating that eight of the remaining 25 hostages expected to be released in the coming weeks are no longer alive.
Here’s what else to know:
-
Ms. Yehud — one of the last living women held hostage — was initially supposed to be freed last week. When she was not released, Israel blocked hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza, as the agreement stipulated. The Israeli military allowed them to proceed after mediators said on Sunday that they had secured a commitment for Ms. Yehud’s release.
-
The Thai hostages were abducted during the Hamas-led attack in 2023 from four farms close to the Gaza border, where they were agricultural workers. Dozens of Thai farmworkers were kidnapped or killed during the assault, making them the second-largest group of victims in the Oct. 7 attack, after Israelis.
-
Aِbout 20 of the Palestinian prisoners are set to be expelled abroad and will not be allowed to return their homes in the West Bank or Jerusalem, according to the Hamas-linked prisoners’ office. Expelled prisoners can head to the Gaza Strip or leave for Egypt, where discussions over their final destination are ongoing, according to the Palestinian commissioner for prisoners’ affairs.