Hamas is preparing to release three Israeli captives held in Gaza in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The swap of the captives, due to take place on Saturday morning, is the fifth exchange so far under the Gaza ceasefire deal, which appears increasingly fragile amid United States President Donald Trump’s proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians from the enclave.
Hamas and Israel have confirmed that three civilian men – Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 – will be released on Saturday under the agreed first phase of the truce, which runs until early March.
A stage was set up in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza ahead of the release, which will see the captives handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Banners on the stage read: “We are the flood, we are the war’s next day.”
Footage from Al Jazeera showed Hamas fighters gathering at the site.
استعدادات في قطاع غزة لتسليم 3 أسرى إسرائيليين ضمن اتفاق وقف إطلاق النار وتبادل الأسرى#الجزيرة #الأخبار pic.twitter.com/wdXJHmjstd
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) February 8, 2025
Sharabi and Ben Ami were both taken from Kibbutz Be’eri, a farming community targeted by Hamas during its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken captive. Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival.
Israel is due to release 183 male Palestinian prisoners, including senior Hamas figures, between the ages of 20 and 61 on the same day. Seven will be transferred to Egypt ahead of further deportation.
Among those slated for release is Iyad Abu Shakhdam, 49, who was jailed for nearly 21 years over his involvement in Hamas attacks on Israel in the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.
Another is Jamal al-Tawil, a prominent Hamas politician in the occupied West Bank and former mayor of the village of el-Bireh, near Ramallah, who has spent nearly two decades in and out of Israeli detention.
Following his arrest in 2021, al-Tawil was held in administrative detention, a renewable six-month period in which suspects are held without charge or trial.
Overnight, the Israeli military is reported to have carried out raids across the occupied West Bank on the family homes of Palestinians set for release.
⬅️مشهد من اعتقال قوات الاحتلال عشرات الشبان خلال اقتحام بلدة عزون شرق قلقيلية مساء الأمس pic.twitter.com/sOJRz7wJDO
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) February 7, 2025
The Palestinian Information Center said that houses in the village of Deir Nidham, northwest of Ramallah were among the targets, while “dozens” of people in the city of Qalqilya were arrested.
Second phase unclear
The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire agreement, which calls for 33 Israeli captives and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners to be released, has so far held despite uproar over Trump’s proposal to clear Gaza of its inhabitants and take over the territory.
So far, 18 Israeli captives and 550 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged. But it is feared that Trump’s plan could complicate talks over the second and more difficult phase, when Hamas is to release the remaining captives in return for a lasting ceasefire.
However, the armed group is thought to have little motivation to give up that leverage should there be a prospect that the US and Israel would then embark in ethnic cleansing of the enclave.
A third phase of the agreement calls for the reconstruction of Gaza, but US officials have also raised significant doubts over that now.
The first phase of the ceasefire also includes the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid to the territory. Last week, wounded Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt for the first time since May.
More than 100 of the captives that Hamas took were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. More than 70 are still in Gaza, however, at least a third are believed to be dead.
It is not clear whether Israel and Hamas have begun negotiating the second phase, and it is feared that the devastating war, which has killed more than 61,709 people in Gaza, a figure which now includes at least 14,222 missing and presumed dead, could resume in early March.
