Hamas frees three Gaza hostages as ceasefire hits four-week mark

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Hamas released three other Israeli men in Gaza on Saturday, after the ceasefire collapsed for four weeks, increasingly fragile in a week of the brink of the abyss.
The Israelis were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at a ceremony that was elaborate in Khan Yunis, a city often destroyed – and the pressure of Hamas – in the southern Gaza Strip.
They were taken hostages from their homes at Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Palestinian group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, where about 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli officials.
Sagoy Dickel-Chin, a 36-year-old Israeli, and an Israeli Russian Sasha Takfanov, 29, and Argentine-Israel Previous males issued last week.
During the ceremony, Hamas fighters showed the arms and uniforms they seized from the Israeli military bases during the cross -border raid in 2023.
Israel began to launch more than 350 Palestinian prisoners later on Saturday under the conditions of the ceasefire, 36 of whom were serving the penalty of life for violence against the Israelis.
The vast majority of others were held without trial in Israeli prisons after their arrest in Gaza within 15 months of the war. More than 48,000 people have been killed in the besieged tape since the war began, according to local officials.
The agreement collapsed almost earlier this week after Hamas claimed that Israel was violating the ceasefire by preventing the entry of heavy machines to remove the rubble and mobile homes to accommodate hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians.
Hamas threatened to delay the hostage launch if Israel did not facilitate the entry of equipment as required under the ceasefire agreement. In the following days, the Arab media broadcast pictures of some heavy machines that enter across Egypt, and Hamas agreed on Friday to continue the overlapping publications of the hostages.
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he forced Hamas to retreat by re -spreading forces near the Gaza border in southern Israel and pledged to restart the war if the issuance did not happen as specified.
“This week, again, Hamas tried to violate the agreement and create a wrong crisis,” he said in a statement.
After the publications, it seemed that US President Donald Trump was back away from his threat earlier this week “All hell” will erupt “ If the enthusiasm “All” does not launch the hostage by 12 o’clock on Saturday.
Instead, he wrote on the social truth that he would leave Israel to take any action.
“Israel will now have to decide what they will do at 12:00 am, today, the important deadline that was imposed on the launch of all hostages. He wrote that the United States will support the decision they make!”
The ceasefire falls from three phases in a transitional period between the first and second stages, and negotiations are supposed to occur to put an end to the war.
In the first six weeks-which ends in early March-Hamas is asked to launch 33 Israeli hostages, including all children, women and men over the age of 50.
By Saturday, 24 people – 19 Israelis and five Thai farms workers who were considered hostage on October 7. It is believed that many of the 73 hostages have died. Of the remaining 14 covered in this first stage, there are only six hostages alive.
The group originally took about 250 people hostage on October 7, 2023. It issued about 120 during the ceasefire in November 2023 compared to hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas will only start the release of male soldiers who took the prisoner and delivered the bodies of dead hostages if negotiations succeed in converting the temporary ceasefire into a permanent truce. This will require Israel permanently withdrawing its forces from Gaza.
These talks are scheduled to start last week, but Israel has not yet sent any high -level teams to Qatar or Egypt, which mediates the agreement alongside the United States.
The ceasefire frame is increasingly offering pressure due to operational displays and Trump’s repeated assurances that the United States intends to take over Gaza.
Trump’s proposal, which can lead to collective expulsion of about 2.3 million Palestinian civilians, encouraged Netanyahu, who is increasingly hesitating to end the war with Hamas.
Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House this week and reiterated that Jordan and Egypt will take refugees, despite the wide condemnation of the plan in the Arab world.
Hamas said in a statement after the hostage on Saturday: “We say to the world there is no migration except Jerusalem,” Hamas said in a statement after the hostage on Saturday. “This is our response to Trump’s calls for displacement and liquidation.”
Additional reports by Steve Chavez in Washington
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2025-02-15 14:27:00