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On Saturday, Hamas released three Israeli men from Gaza in front of an expected exchange against Palestinian prisoners later a day when the increasingly fragile armistice held in the third week.
The men were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in an artistically staged ceremony in Deir al-Balah, a relatively undamaged section of the Gaza Strip.
On October 7, 2023, they were taken hostage by their houses and a music festival during the attack by the Palestinian militant group on October 7, 2023, in which, according to Israeli officials, around 1,200 people were killed.
Ohad Ben Ami (56) or Levy (34) and Eli Sharabi, 52, seemed to be pale and thin when Hamas showed them next to his strongly armed fighters on stage.
“The shocking pictures we saw today will not be taken into account,” said Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an explanation that referred to her physical condition, which was significantly worse than that in previous swaps.
Shortly later, Israel began the publication of 180 Palestinian prisoners, as was necessary in accordance with the conditions of the ceasefire. The vast majority were held in Israeli prisons without legal proceedings. Less than two dozen of them are serving lifelong prison terms after they were convicted of attacks on Israelis.
According to the local officials, almost 48,000 people were killed in besieged stripes for 15 months of the Israel War in Gaza.
Despite the latest exchange, the framework of the ceasefire is increasingly due to operational swallowing and public statements by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who underlined his reluctance to war and US President Donald Trump’s surprising announcement this week, which he wanted from The War has increasingly subjected. We take control of the enclave.
On Friday, Hamas delayed the confirmation that the SWAP would take place on schedule according to the ceasefire agreement after complaining that Israel had not allowed tens of thousands of tents and mobile homes in Gaza.
The ceasefire agreement requires the entry of these humanitarian deliveries, a person who is familiar with the details, although it is not clear when the delivery should arrive.
The need for protection became urgently this week when winter storms whip the coasts. About 2 million people were displaced there and live in extensive tent cities and the ruins of their neighborhoods.
The future of the ceasefire was also questioned by Netanyah’s promise to resume the war with Hamas after he was informed that Donald Trump favors the shift of the entire Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip.
Trump’s proposal, which would be illegal under international law and triggered a widespread outrage in the Arab world, Gaza would drown from the Palestinian control and force its population to the neighboring countries to start a reconstruction plan that is in a “Riviera des near East”.
The three -stage ceasefire is currently in a transition between the first and second phases, in which negotiations to end the war.
In the first six -week period, Hamas had to publish 33 Israeli hostages, including all children, women and men over 50. Until Saturday they had released 21 of them. This six -week time ends in the first week of March.
The group originally took around 250 people hosted on October 7, 2023. During a short ceasefire in November 2023, around 120 was published in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Many of the remaining hostages are considered dead.
Last week, Hamas also released five Thai agricultural workers who were captured during the cross -border robbery who triggered the war.
Hamas will only start releasing the male soldiers they have captured and passed over the corpses of the dead hostages when negotiations manage to convert the temporary ceasefire into a permanent armistice. This would withdraw its armed forces from the Gaza.
These conversations should start this week, but Israel does not yet have to send high -ranking teams to Qatar or Egypt, who convey the agreement next to the United States.
When Netanyahu ends the war, he risks the collapse of his ruling legal coalition, which includes a right -wing extremist political party.
Her demands include continued combat operations, a permanent repetition of the Gaza Strip and the expulsion of its Palestinian population, which provides Trump’s proposal.
Hamas rejected these plans, which were also condemned by the Arab and European allies of the United States.
