Middle East latest: Israel and Hamas conduct fifth exchange of hostages and prisoners in ceasefire
Middle East latest: Israel and Hamas conduct fifth exchange of hostages and prisoners in ceasefire
Israel and Hamas conducted a fifth exchange of prisoners and hostages Saturday as part of a ceasefire agreement that has paused 16 months of war in Gaza.
Hamas released three civilian Israelis and Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners. It was the fifth swap of hostages for prisoners since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19. Twenty-one hostages and more than 730 Palestinian prisoners have now been freed.
The civilian hostages had been abducted during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that left about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, dead and sparked the war. The prisoners released by Israel on Saturday included 111 from Gaza who were rounded up after the Hamas attack and detained without trial.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory war following the Hamas attack, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants.
Observers have been concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump’s stunning proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza could put the fragile ceasefire deal at risk.
Here is the latest:
Palestinians in West Bank camp flee during Israeli army raid targeting militants
FA’RA CAMP, West Bank — Hundreds of Palestinians on Saturday were fleeing their homes in a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank as the Israeli army escalated its raid against Palestinian militants.
Israeli army bulldozers have torn up streets and alleys in Fa’ra refugee camp, a hardscrabble urban area home to over 8,000 residents, cutting off water supplies and electricity. Sewage is seeping into the rutted roads, residents say, and the conditions have become increasingly unlivable as the military destroys infrastructure and businesses.
For the past week, the Israeli army has also shut off all roads leading to and from the camp, banning cars and impeding deliveries of food and other supplies, said Asim Mansour, who runs the camp’s Popular Committee, or elected leadership.
On Saturday, residents said the Israeli army secured a passage for civilians to leave the camp. At least 1,000 residents have fled, Mansour said. Families were seen carrying their belongings and children through the mud and to the houses of their relatives in nearby villages. Mansour also said that the Israeli army had taken over 15 homes for military purposes, forcing their occupants to leave.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday’s evacuations. After the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza took effect last month, the army launched extensive raids in the northern West Bank, an escalation even from the near nightly raids that became the norm after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
Israel has described the operations as counterterrorism efforts, aimed at countering Hamas and other militant groups that have increased attacks against Israelis.
Red Cross says concerned about hostage release operations after 3 gaunt-looking Israelis are freed
JERUSALEM — The International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday it is increasingly concerned about release operations in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire following Hamas’ heavily stage-managed release of three gaunt-looking Israeli hostages.
In Gaza, hostages Omar Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy took the stage and made short speeches before being ferried by the ICRC back to Israel. The scene drew strong rebuke from Israeli leaders who said the hostages looked like Holocaust survivors and denounced the release as a spectacle.
Following the release, the ICRC said it “strongly (urges) all parties, including the mediators, to take responsibility to ensure that future releases are dignified and private.”
The group said it conveyed that message “privately and publicly” to Israel and Hamas, who finished their fifth wave of releases Saturday, with Israel releasing 183 Palestinian prisoners later in the day.
6 killed in Israeli drone strike in Lebanon near eastern border with Syria
BEIRUT — Six people were killed and two injured in Lebanon on Saturday in an Israeli drone strike in the area of Janata near the eastern border with Syria, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck “Hezbollah operatives” who “were operating in a strategic weapons manufacturing and storage site” belonging to the militant group.
Israel has continued to launch near-daily strikes on what it says are Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon since the implementation of a ceasefire agreement in late November that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
The ceasefire document stipulates that both Israel and Lebanon maintain the right to act in “self defense” but does not define what qualifies as self defense.
The original 60-day deadline for implementing the terms of the ceasefire agreement expired in late January, but Lebanon and Israel agreed to extend it until Feb. 18.
Morocco and Iraq say relocating Palestinians would be ‘contrary to international law’
RABAT, Morocco — Morocco has denounced U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to displace and relocate Palestinians from Gaza.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita held talks Saturday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Rabat in which the pair issued a statement calling plans to relocate Palestinians “a dangerous precedent contrary to the principles of international and humanitarian law.” They said such plans could undermine the region’s security.
The two foreign ministers join officials from other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, in rejecting the plan Trump floated at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Morocco is one of four Arab countries to have normalized ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords brokered during Trump’s first term. The two countries have deepened political and economic ties, opening the door for expanded trade in sectors such as agriculture and weaponry.
Israel targets alleged Hamas weapons depot in southern Syria
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s military said Saturday that it struck a Hamas weapons storage facility in southern Syria, claiming the weapons were intended to be used in attacks on Israeli forces.
Israel has been operating in and around areas in Syria close to the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.
Since the end of Assad’s rule, the Israeli army has continued to operate against alleged Hezbollah targets in Syria and to confiscate weapons belonging to the Syrian Armed Forces. But Saturday’s announcement appeared to be the first time Israel openly claimed that Hamas was operating in Syria since Assad’s overthrow.
Released Israeli hostages reunited with relatives
TEL AVIV, Israel — The three Israeli hostages released on Saturday have been reunited with family members on Israeli soil.
According to Hamas and Israel, the hostages are: Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and Or Levy, 34.
“It’s over, it’s over,” Levy’s brother Michael said as the two embraced at a military base where the hostages first crossed over from Gaza. Levy’s parents then joined them in a tearful embrace. Levy’s wife was killed in the Oct. 7 attack, and their 3-year-old son has been in the care of relatives.
Ella Ben Ami, the daughter of released hostage Ohad Ben Ami, told Israeli channel 12 that she could barely recognize her father when she saw him in the live footage of his release after 16 months of captivity.
“I have to say that it was a really difficult few moments, to say the least,” she said, adding: “He was emaciated and his bones were protruding. It took me a moment to realize that this was my father.”
Ella and her sisters, Yulie and Natalie, spoke with their father as he was checked over at a hospital. “You’re the strongest in the world!” Ella told him, according to footage released by the prime minister’s office.
Iran’s top leader meets Hamas leaders in Tehran
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader has met top Hamas leaders in Tehran, state-run IRNA news agency reported Saturday.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy chairman of Hamas’ Political Bureau, and Muhammad Ismail Darwish, Hamas’ Shura Council chairman, IRNA reported.
The report quoted Khamenei as saying that the people of Gaza defeated “the Zionist regime, and in fact, America, and didn’t let them reach any of their goals.”
Khamenei also thanked the Hamas officials who negotiated the ceasefire agreement with Israel, IRNA said.
Scenes of three Israeli hostages speaking under duress spark rage
TEL AVIV, Israel — The three looked gaunt and frail and were made to speak during a carefully orchestrated release ceremony surrounded by armed militants.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We will not accept the shocking scenes” that played out Saturday. The statement did not lay out any punitive measures, but previous releases that were chaotic sparked a delay in the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel’s ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, said the hostages spent “491 days of hell, starved, emaciated and pained” and were “being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said the “difficult scenes” were reason to extend the truce with Hamas and bring home the dozens of remaining hostages.
Hostage family in the UK marks his release
LONDON — Gillian and Pete Brisley watched the handover of their son-in-law, Eli Sharabi, from their home in Britain with bittersweet emotion, thrilled that he was finally free but horrified at his physical condition.
“At the moment I can hardly talk,’’ a shaken Gillian Brisley said before handing the phone to her husband, who commented on how fragile Sharabi appeared.
“He looks as though he’s been to Belsen,’’ Pete Brisley said, referring to the World War II concentration camp.
Earlier, his family said they didn’t know whether Sharabi had been told that his wife and two teenage daughters were killed on Oct. 7, 2023.
“I just hope that he already knows, because it’s just going to be another layer of torture for him to have survived for the 490 days and then to come out to that piece of news,’’ his wife’s brother Stephen Brisley told the BBC before his release.
Hostage family celebrates his release
TEL AVIV, Israel — The extended family of Eli Sharabi erupted into cheers and chanting when they saw him on TV being released.
The joyful scene was quickly replaced with tension, worry and tears as the relatives took in Sharabi’s appearance: gaunt and frail looking after 16 months in captivity.
When Sharabi was led to the vehicles of the Red Cross, they again jumped and shouted and sang a Jewish prayer meant to note special occasions.
“He doesn’t look good. It is mixed feelings. We are happy he is on his feet” said Kathy Barby, a relative. “He is alive.”
In a central Tel Aviv square, dubbed “Hostages Square” because it has become a center for protests from hostage families, supporters, carrying posters of other hostages yet to be freed from captivity, chanted: “Bring them home!”
Hamas parades the 3 hostages
The three hostages arrived at the exchange location where Hamas paraded them before a crowd of hundreds in the Gaza Strip ahead of their release. They were led up onto a stage and a masked Hamas fighter held a microphone as each was made to give a statement before the crowd.
Hostages did not speak during previous releases.
Hostages’ families eagerly await their return
TEL AVIV, Israel — Michael Levy, Or Levy’s brother, said his 3-year-old nephew, Almog, already knows that his father was on his way. Michael said the family had told Almog that his mother, who was killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, was not returning but that they were searching for his father.
“Mogi, we found daddy,” Michael Levy said he told the boy, using his nickname, in an interview with Israeli Channel 12. “We haven’t seen happiness like that in him for a long time.”
Osnat Sharabi Matalon, Eli Sharabi’s sister, told the news channel the family was stunned that he was finally being freed. “Until we see, touch and hug him, it feels like it isn’t happening.”
Sharabi’s extended family gathered at a home in Tel Aviv to watch the release live. Relatives jumped and cheered in anticipation.
Members of Kibbutz Beeri, from where Sharabi and third hostage Ohad Ben Ami are from, gathered with Israeli flags and posters welcoming the two hostages back.
Armed Hamas fighters gather at exchange location
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Dozens of masked and armed Hamas fighters, some driving white pickup trucks with guns mounted on them, lined up Saturday morning at the location of the exchange near the territory’s main north-south highway in Central Gaza.
A small crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene, with a line of Hamas fighters keeping them at a distance from a temporary stage.
By The Associated Press
