Hamas releases three more Israeli hostages

Hamas has released three more hostages as part of a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

This is reported by The Times of Israel.

The IDF

first handed over Ofer Calderon, 54, and Yarden Bibas, 35. The latterʼs wife and two children are still being held captive by Hamas. Later, a second Red Cross convoy picked up Israeli-American Keith Siegel, who had been held captive for 484 days.

This is the fourth hostage release under the ceasefire agreement. The first three were released on the same day the agreement came into effect, January 19. Four more were released later, and eight were released on January 30.

In exchange, the Israeli Prison Service said it had released 183 Palestinian prisoners.

The Rafah border crossing, the main entry and exit point from the Gaza Strip, will also open for the first time since May 2024 to allow Palestinian patients to cross the border from Gaza to Egypt and receive medical care. In particular, 50 sick and injured children are involved.

Approximately 50 wounded Hamas operatives are expected to cross the border with the hostages.

Gaza ceasefire agreement

On the evening of January 15, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. This could ease tensions in the Middle East, where conflicts continue in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

The ceasefire agreement was originally scheduled to take effect on January 19 at 08:30, but Israel continued to attack the Gaza Strip because Hamas failed to provide a list of hostages to be released that day in time, thereby violating the terms of the agreement.

However, Hamas later provided the names of three hostages who were to be released that same day. Israel confirmed this, and the deal went into effect on January 19 at 11:15 a.m. local time.

Media reports say that in the first phase, IDF will withdraw to within 700 meters of the Gaza Strip, Israel will release approximately 2 000 Palestinians, and Hamas will release 33 Israeli prisoners. Israel said that eight of the 33 hostages that were to be released as part of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas have died.

Israel will allow wounded Gazans to move through the territory to receive medical care and will open the Rafah crossing with Egypt. The IDF troops will begin withdrawing from the Philadelphia Corridor.

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