GAZA - The Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released in exchange, in the latest stage of a truce aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza
Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli dual national, and Yarden Bibas were handed over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before being transferred to Israel. Israeli-American Keith Siegel was handed over separately at the Gaza City seaport, with Hamas turning the event into a PR spectacle.
Hours later, the first of 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees due to be released as part of the exchange got off a bus in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where they were greeted by large crowds.
At the newly reopened Rafah crossing on the southern border, meanwhile, the first Palestinian patients to be allowed to leave Gaza, including children suffering from cancer and heart conditions, were expected to cross over to Egypt in a bus provided by the World Health Organization.
Saturday’s handover featured none of the chaotic scenes that overshadowed an earlier transfer on Thursday, when Hamas guards struggled to shield hostages, including five Thais, from a surging crowd in Gaza.
But it was once again an occasion for a show of force by uniformed Hamas fighters who paraded in the area where the handovers took place in a sign of their re-established dominance in Gaza despite the heavy losses suffered in the war.
Ranks of Hamas fighters formed up on Gaza’s beachfront, where a stage had been set up for the handover of Keith Siegel.
Green Hamas and Palestinian flags flapped in a strong sea breeze near a wharf.
Siegel, 65, wore a black tracksuit and dark-grey hat as he was escorted quickly to the stage by fighters.
He waved to onlookers and cameras, as hostages being freed have been told to do by their captors, before being handed over to the Red Cross.
The occupational therapist seized from his home, along with his wife Aviva who was released during a truce in November 2023, appeared to have some difficulty moving as he mounted the stage.
Before Siegel’s release, ordered lines of scores of heavily armed militants, only their eyes visible through masks, flanked the platform.
On a row of pickups, some fighters carried RPGs (rocket-propelled-grenades) and other weapons. (Story continues below)
Improved crowd control was in place on Saturday for the hostage handover in Gaza City. (Photo: Reuters)
Homage to slain leader
On the platform itself, militants held up portraits of the group’s slain leaders including Mohammed Deif, its military chief accused by Israel of being one of the masterminds behind the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel and whose death was confirmed by Hamas on Thursday.
“We are the men of Mohammed Deif,” the Hamas fighters chanted as they brandished their weapons.
Ahead of the two exchanges in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza and Gaza City to the north, scores of Hamas fighters, most wearing military fatigues, stood guard, apparently to control onlookers.
The arrangements for Saturday’s hostage release appeared in stark contrast with scenes during Thursday’s exchange in Khan Yunis, which was condemned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Only after Siegel had left the handover site in a Red Cross vehicle were crowds permitted to move towards the stage.
Onlookers, many of them children, paused to take selfies with Hamas fighters and mingled in the port, waving Palestinian flags.
Bibas and Kalderon were handed over quickly in devastated Khan Yunis, where many buildings have been destroyed in 15 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants. (Story continues below)
Yarden Bibas, whose wife and children are believed to have died after being taken hostage, glances at a Hamas militant after his release in Khan Younis on Saturday. (Photo: Reuters)
Family torn apart
Bibas, the father of the two youngest hostages — Kfir, whose second birthday fell in January, and his older brother Ariel, who turned five in August — was urged to wave to a Hamas cameraman as he held a certificate confirming his release.
The 35-year-old, whose wife and two children Hamas has declared dead, although Israel has not confirmed their deaths, frowned as he took to the stage and looked straight ahead during the now familiar handover formalities endured by other hostages being released.
The handover brings the total number of hostages so far handed over to 18, including the five Thais freed on Thursday.
After Saturday’s exchange, Israel will have released 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including militants serving life sentences for deadly attacks as well as some detained during the war but not charged.
In Israel, crowds gathered at the location in Tel Aviv known as Hostage Square to watch the release on giant outdoor screens, mixing cheers and applause with tears as the three men appeared during the morning.
Wider settlement sought
As the fighting has gone quiet, diplomatic efforts to build a wider settlement have stepped up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday with the ceasefire in Gaza, and a possible normalisation of relations with Saudi Arabia as part of a postwar deal likely to be a focus.
During the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 children, women and older male hostages as well as sick and injured, were due to be released, with more than 60 men of military age left for a second phase which must still be worked out.
Negotiations are due to start by Tuesday on agreements for the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops in a second phase of the deal, which is intended to lead to a final end of the war in Gaza.
The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, has so far stayed on track despite a number of incidents that have led both sides to accuse the other of violating the deal.
Netanyahu’s government, which contains hardliners who opposed the ceasefire deal, and Hamas say they are committed to reaching an agreement in the second phase.
But prospects for a durable settlement remain unclear. The war started with a Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, and saw more than 250 taken as hostages. The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians. Gaza lies in ruins and a deep legacy of bitterness and mistrust remains.
Israeli leaders have continued to insist that Hamas cannot remain in Gaza, but the movement has taken every opportunity to demonstrate the control it continues to exert despite the loss of much of its former leadership and thousands of fighters during the war.
As Gazans have slowly begun returning to their homes, the full extent of the devastation in Gaza after more than a year of bombardment has become clear, with reconstruction expected to take 10-15 years, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said this week.