Palestinian militants released three more hostages in the Gaza Strip on Saturday as part of a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Yarden Bibas, 35, and French-Israeli Ofer Calderon, 54, were handed over to Red Cross officials in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza.
About two hours later, American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65, was released in Gaza City. His release completed Saturday’s hostage handover.
In return, Israel should release 183 Palestinian prisoners. The hostages kidnapped 484 days ago, were to be taken to an Israeli military base where they were to be reunited with their families.
They will then be taken to a hospital. A ceasefire has been in place in Gaza for almost two weeks. In four hostage exchanges, 18 hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been freed.
The three-phase ceasefire agreement came into effect on January 1. Article 19 seeks a permanent end to the fighting and the release of all hostages still being held by the Iran-backed Hamas militia and its extremist allies.
After the release of the three abductees on Saturday, 79 hostages remain being held in the Gaza Strip, 35 of whom are believed to have been killed by Israel. Another exchange of hostages and prisoners is planned for next weekend.
In this first six-week phase, 33 Israeli hostages are to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners.
According to Hamas, eight of the 33 hostages on the release list have died so far.
It is unclear who they are exactly.
Yarden Bibas was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz together with his wife Shiri and their two sons, Kfir and Ariel. Kfir was only nine months old when he was taken by militants.
The first phase of the agreement will see the release of all four, but the fate of Kfir, Ariel and Shiri is of great concern.
Hamas claims the three were killed in Israeli attacks in the first months of the war, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.
