Hamas will publish three Israelis, including two women and an 80 -year -old man, as well as five Thai nationals at the next release of hostages, scheduled for Thursday, officials from Israel and Hamas said.
Officials have appointed Israeli women like Arbel Yehoud, 29, Agam Berger, 19, and man like Gadi Moses, 80. The media said that the hostage families had approved the publication of their names.
AFP via Getty Images
The identities of Thai nationals were not immediately known. A certain number of foreign workers have been caught in captivity with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during October 7, 2023 of Hamas who sparked the war in Gaza.
There are 89 hostages – both alive and dead – still in Gaza, according to Israeli officials, including seven two American nationals: Keith Siegel, 65, of Chapel Hill, Caroline du Nord; Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut; And Edan Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey. Four other Americans were reportedly killed. We still don’t know when one of the Americans could be released.
The liberation expected on Thursday will continue the momentum of fragile cease Between Israel and the Hamas militant group which started earlier this month and which interrupted the 15-month war in Gaza. As part of the agreement, Hamas is release In phases in exchange for the freedom of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The Middle East envoy of President Trump, Steve Witkoff, was in Israel on Wednesday and met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who goes to Washington next week to meet Mr. Trump – The first foreign chief to meet the president during his second term.
The release of Thursday was not initially planned, but came following a dead end between Israel and Hamas for the identity of the hostages published during the weekend.
Israel had demanded that Yehoud, a civilian, is part of this group and when she was not released, Israel held the movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who seek to return to What remains of their houses In northern Gaza, beaten by war.
With the kind permission to bring them home now / handout via Reuters
International mediation efforts caused additional release on Thursday and erased the way So that the Palestinians spread north. Another press release is scheduled for Saturday, which, according to Netanyahu’s office, would release male hostages. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons are expected to be released Thursday and Saturday.
The break in the fighting revealed the immensity of the destruction caused to the urban landscape in Gaza, which prompted a suggestion of Mr. Trump during the weekend that Jordan and Egypt neighboring Welcome the displaced Palestinians.
Earlier Wednesday, Egypt, an important American ally, rejected Mr. Trump’s suggestion.
The idea has long been rejected by the two countries and the Palestinians themselves because they say that it would undermine the notion of Palestinian state and fomiaries in their states.
Trump said on Saturday that he would urge Egypt and Jordan to accept people from Gaza so that “we are cleaning all of this”, calling the territory “a demolition site”.
Trump said he would urge the leaders of the two countries, who are key allies for the United States in the Middle East and the main beneficiaries of American aid in the region, to accept the idea, saying that Reinstallation could be temporary or long -term.
It is not clear if Mr. Trump could force Egypt or Jordan high prices against American allies To make its way.
In his first public comments since Trump launched the suggestion on Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi called the idea “an injustice” to which Egypt was not a party.
At a press conference in Cairo with President Kenyan on a visit, El-Sissi said that the transfer of Palestinians “could never be tolerated or authorized.”
“The solution to this problem is the solution to two states. It is the creation of a Palestinian state,” he said. “The solution is not to remove the Palestinian people from their place.”
He said that his government would work with the Trump administration to achieve peace “based on the two -state solution” between Israel and the Palestinians.
The war in Gaza killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, most women and children according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count. The fighting has erased large Gaza areas, moving around 90% of its population of 2.3 million, often several times.
During its attack in 2023 against Israel which sparked the war, Hamas took 250 people hostage and killed around 1,200.
The theme of displacement was recurrent in Palestinian history and the idea of remaining firm on his country is an integral element of the Palestinian identity. The Palestinians fear that if they leave their land, they may never be allowed to return.
These fears were aggravated by far -right members of the Israeli government who support the reconstruction of the Jewish colonies in Gaza, whose 2005 troops and settlers withdrew that the idea is unrealistic.
Egypt and Jordan have each made peace with Israel but support the creation of a Palestinian state in occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. They fear that the permanent displacement of the population of Gaza will make it impossible.
Egypt and Jordan receive billions of dollars in American aid each year. Military assistance to Egypt and Israel has been exempt from a freezing of US funding for global aid programs.
