Israel and Hamas reach Gaza ceasefire and hostage release de

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Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire and hostage release agreement to halt more than a year of fighting in the Gaza Strip, President Biden and Qatar's prime minister announced separately on Wednesday. The deal comes after a week of intense negotiations mediated by Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt.

"Today, after many months of intensive diplomacy by the United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire and hostage deal," Mr. Biden said in a written statement. "This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed-humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity."

Speaking from the White House Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Biden said, "There was no other way for this war to end than with a hostage deal, and I'm deeply satisfied this day has finally come, for the sake of the people of Israel, and for the families waiting in agony, and for the sake of the innocent people in Gaza who suffered unimaginable devastation because of the war."

He said Americans will be among the hostages released in phase one of the deal, "and the vice president and I cannot wait to welcome them home."

The deal is expected to take effect Sunday, the White House said.

As news of the agreement broke, crowds gathered in Deir al Bala in Gaza, and celebratory gunfire was heard.

"I'm extremely happy," one young Palestinian woman in the Gaza city of Khan Younis CBS News. "The past 15 months I experienced tears, laughters, lost martyrs and people went into prison, but finally I feel the joy."

"I am very happy, and today is the day I wished to hear about since the beginning of the war," an elderly man said. "God is sending us hope," he added.

The ceasefire is not yet in effect, and Israeli airstrikes continued Wednesday in Gaza City and Khan Younis after the news broke.

The families of the American hostages still being held in Gaza expressed their relief at the news of a deal.

"We are deeply grateful that there is finally an agreement between Israel and Hamas to bring our loved ones — Omer, Edan, Sagui, Itay, Keith, Gad, and Judi — home," the families said in a statement. "We have been waiting for 467 days while our family members suffer from life-threatening injuries, abuse, torture, and sexual violence. We thank President Biden, President-elect Trump, and their teams for their constructive efforts to make this possible."

What is in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal
Details of the deal are similar to a plan outlined by Mr. Biden last year. The deal is expected to go into effect on Sunday.

According to a draft from mediator sources, viewed by CBS News earlier this week, and Mr. Biden's description, it would consist of three phases, each lasting about 42 days.

During the first phase, Hamas would release 33 women and children hostages, as well as hostages over 50 years old, the draft viewed by CBS News said. The first phase will also include the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza, Mr. Biden said.

For each woman or child hostage returned to Israel, Israel is expected to release 30 Palestinian women and children from its prisons. Hamas would release all hostages over 50 years of age, and Israel would release 30 Palestinian prisoners aged 50 or older.

A senior Israeli official told CBS News that the release of hostages from Israel would begin on the first day of a 42-day ceasefire period. Mr. Biden said Americans will be among the first wave of hostages released.

On that first day, Hamas would release three hostages, according to the draft viewed by CBS News. On the seventh day, Hamas would release four hostages. Thereafter, Hamas would release three hostages taken from Israel every seven days, starting with the living and then moving on to return the bodies of those who have died.

During the exchange of hostages and prisoners, there would be a complete ceasefire in Gaza to allow aid to enter, the draft viewed by CBS News said. International aid groups and the United Nations would resume operations in Gaza, and would begin reconstruction of the enclave's infrastructure, such as water, electricity and sewage systems.

The second phase of the deal would involve the release of all remaining male Israeli hostages and the withdrawal of all IDF forces from Gaza, the president announced Wednesday.

The third phase would include the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and prisoners and the beginning of the reconstruction of Gaza, Mr. Biden said.

[bTrump responds to ceasefire and hostage release deal[/b]
In his remarks, Mr. Biden noted that the deal will largely be implemented after his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, takes office.

"This deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented, for the most part, by the next administration," the president said. "For these past few days, we've been speaking as one team."

Trump posted on social media as news broke of the hostage and ceasefire agreement.

"This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies," Trump wrote. "I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones."

Trump said his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will continue to work closely with Israel "to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven."

"We have achieved so much without even being in the White House," Trump wrote. "Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House, and my Administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more Victories for the United States!"

A “tense” weekend meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff led to a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations, with the top aide to US President-elect Donald Trump doing more to sway the premier in a single sit-down than outgoing President Joe Biden did all year, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

Witkoff has been in Doha for the past week to take part in the hostage negotiations, as mediators try to secure a deal before Trump’s January 20 inauguration. On Saturday, Witkoff flew to Israel for a meeting with Netanyahu at the premier’s Jerusalem office.

During the meeting, Witkoff urged Netanyahu to accept key compromises necessary for an agreement, the two Arab officials on Monday told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity. Neither Witkoff nor Netanyahu’s office responded to requests for comment.

Right-wing protesters demonstrated Wednesday night against a deal for a truce in the Gaza war that would see the release of at least some of the Israeli hostages held by terror groups in the Palestinian enclave, warning that the terms of the agreement may leave most captives behind as well as endanger national security by releasing many convicted Palestinian terrorists.

The protests included demonstrators from a group of bereaved families from the 15-month war who marched on the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem and spent the night camped in tents outside the building.

Other protesters blocked the main entrance to the capital.

A demonstration in support of the deal was held in Tel Aviv, which has been a focal point of rallies backing a ceasefire deal.

The Gvura Forum of families who lost loved ones fighting in Gaza said in a statement that the encampment at the PMO was aimed at “calling on cabinet ministers, who have a national responsibility, to stop this dangerous deal at the last moment.”

The Gvura forum chair, Yehoshua Shani, whose son was killed in the fighting, said in the statement: “This is a time of national emergency.”

“The deal being signed at this very minute will bring disaster upon us,” he warned. “It will leave 70 hostages behind and will endanger national security.”

As part of the deal, Israel will release around a thousand Palestinian security prisoners, including over 150 terrorists convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis.

The forum had also been planning to block the entrance to the PMO on Thursday at 11 a.m., when the cabinet had been originally scheduled to convene to approve the deal, though that meeting was delayed after Netanyahu’s office claimed Hamas was backtracking from some of the agreements.

The forum placed an exhibit of dozens of coffins covered in Israeli flags, saying they represent the Israelis who will end up dying because of the deal.

Another group, the hawkish Tikva Forum, which represents a group of hostage families and relatives of fallen soldiers, said in a statement that it was “concerned” about the deal.

The group likewise warned that the agreed-upon deal, which will see the hostages released in phases, will “effectively leave dozens of kidnapped people behind and pave the way for the next massacre and more hostages.”

We are excited, like the entire Israeli people, when we see the hostages returning home after a long and cruel captivity,” the forum said, but nevertheless cautioned that “this deal is dangerous, both for the hostages who will remain in captivity and for the entire Israeli people.”

The forum appealed for cabinet members to “consider those who will be left behind, those who will not return, and those who will be killed in future terror attacks” before voting to approve the deal’s framework Thursday.

“We will not stop or remain silent until we ensure the return of all the hostages, the safety of Israeli citizens and the IDF soldiers, who may pay the most terrible price of all,” it added, urging government members to resign in protest of the deal.

In contrast, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the group representing the majority of families of hostages, welcomed the deal while adding that its fight wouldn’t end until all 98 hostages are returned to Israel from captivity in Gaza.

“This is an important and significant step that brings us closer to the moment when we will see all of the hostages return — the living for rehabilitation with their families and the fallen for a proper burial in their country,” the forum said. “However, the journey has only just begun and will not end until the last hostage is returned.”

The group demanded that the government remain committed to ensuring “the full implementation of the agreement until the last hostage is returned.”

“The announcement of the signing [of a deal] does not allow for joy or relief among the families. Our breath will be held until all our loved ones return home,” it said.

Meanwhile, dozens of right-wing demonstrators protesting the deal blocked traffic under Chords Bridge, at the entrance to Jerusalem.

Police tried to haul the protesters, mostly Orthodox young men, off the pavement and onto the sidewalk, but many of the demonstrators returned to the center of the road chanting: “Conquest, expulsion, settlement,” referring to the Gaza Strip and far-right hopes of establishing Israeli settlements in the enclave.

There were no reports of arrests and the road was eventually reopened.

There is opposition to the deal within the government too. Far-right cabinet members National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have both threatened to bolt the government over the deal.

While Ben Gvir has already publicly said he will take his Otzma Yehudit party out of the government — but not bring it down — Smotrich on Wednesday said he would take the same course with his Religious Zionism party unless the ceasefire enables an eventual return to battle with the aim of achieving the war’s stated goal of completely destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.

Even with opposition from Ben Gvir and Smotrich, there would still be a majority of ministers in the cabinet to approve the deal.

The Religious Zionism party was holding a meeting on the matter on Thursday.

One member, MK Zvi Sukkot, told the Kan public broadcaster that the party would likely resign from the government in protest of the deal with Hamas, adding that the Religious Zionism party was “here to change the DNA of the State of Israel.”

The governing coalition would still retain a slim majority of 61 seats if the seven Religious Zionism MKs were to resign. But without Otzma Yehudit’s additional six lawmakers, it would be left with a minority in the 120-seat Knesset.

Ben Gvir has said that even if he pulls out of the government, he will not bring it down.

Ultranationalist deputy minister Avi Maoz, who represents the single-member Noam party, said in a statement Thursday that he would oppose the ceasefire deal, while saying he also opposes toppling the government over the matter since this would grant Hamas one of its alleged goals in the war.

Maoz contended that even before signing the deal, the government should fire the IDF chief of staff, the Southern Command chief, and the head of Military Intelligence, who

Israel's Cabinet will meet tomorrow to vote on the ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas after it claimed a delay was due to Hamas’ creating a “last-minute crisis.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not elaborate on what the issue was.

Hamas said it was “committed” to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news briefing today that he remains confident the deal will be implemented as planned.

At least 80 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the announcement, Gaza’s Civil Defense said.

Analysis: For Palestinians this isn't over yet
Palestinians reacted quickly in unison with joy, relief and hope that the bombs will stop falling and they will be able to move back to their homes.

Many of them have been living in squalid tent camps, which are freezing at night and hot during the day.

There have been shortages of fresh water, and the United Nations and other aid agencies have warned repeatedly that the enclave is on the brink of famine.

It has been an unsustainable hellhole for months and months, and nearly the entire population has been displaced. No matter what, swaths of the region will have to be rebuilt.

War has left Gaza population completely dependent on aid, WFP says
The World Food Program said it will need upward of $300 million to sustain Gaza's most urgent needs in the next six months, as the war has destroyed the enclave's economy and infrastructure.

"WFP calls on all parties to do what is in their power to halt any further fighting and ensure safe humanitarian access — the war has left more than 2 million people fully dependent on food assistance, homeless, and without any income," the organization said.

Current stock allows the WFP to assist 1 million people, only half of Gaza's population, over the next three months. The organization said it will need all agencies to come together during the ceasefire to provide aid, including the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, which Israel has banned.

"We need all border crossings open and functioning reliably," the WFP said. "We also need humanitarian teams to be able to move freely and safely across Gaza to reach those in need."

Gaza has become 'Israel's Vietnam,' former ambassador says
Marc Ginsberg, who was ambassador to Morocco during the Clinton administration, expressed skepticism that Israel was able to accomplish its goal during the last 15 months of war in Gaza.

"I believe in the end, and I hate to say this, but this is becoming Israel's Vietnam," Ginsberg said on MSNBC's "Ana Cabrera Reports."

The Vietnam War has long been criticized as a failure for the United States in both military strategy and public opinion.

Ginsberg pointed out that Hamas has been reconstituted under new leadership despite assassinations of high-ranking members and that it has not promised to lay down its arms.

"Israel insists that it will not ever permit Hamas to remain in Gaza, and I keep asking myself the same question over and over again: How are you going to make that happen?" Ginsberg said.

Analysis: There are no celebrations in Israel. Most just want to move on.
In Israel, there is a feeling of melancholy. There is some relief that this tremendously dark period could be coming to an end, and people want to put the war behind them. But this has been a traumatic experience. This is a hostage deal after all, and there’s not much to celebrate in that.

Yes, some hostages will be returning home, but no one knows what condition they will be in. And many bodies will be coming back, as well, including those of children and elderly people.

There are also deep divisions in Israeli society, and this war has brought them to the surface. The far right wants Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war, and it supports the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. Those on the far right advocate for Israeli settlers to return to Gaza, and they believe Netanyahu is caving in to pressure and not going far enough.

There are those on the left who were out on the streets protesting against Netanyahu even before the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

They believe that he has used the war to score political points and that he could have signed this deal in May, and they accuse him of prolonging the conflict until the U.S

As a result, there are no parades or victory celebrations — most people just want to move on.

Here's what happens to hostages after they are released
If all goes as planned and the hostages are released from Gaza, one of their first stops in Israel will be a hospital, according to the Israeli Health Ministry's protocols and guidelines.

"The Israeli health system awaits the return of those abducted from captivity," the guidelines say.

The steps to help the former Hamas prisoners get back on their feet got a test run in November 2023 when the first groups of hostages were released and an operation called “Heaven’s Door” was launched to aid them.

The "returnees" will receive an "immediate assessment and treatment in a hospital and, after release, continued treatment and long-term monitoring of all health, medical, mental and social aspects."

The former hostages will be examined in an area cordoned off from the rest of the hospital and will be assigned a private room. There, they will be able to visit with family and, among other things, relearn how to eat normally to avoid what's known as "refeeding syndrome."

That is a life-threatening condition that happens when a malnourished person starts eating regularly again.

Visitors will be kept to a minimum and "the families of the returnees and their guests must be instructed that taking photographs in the compound and uploading materials to social media may harm the returnee," the guidelines state.

In addition to the usual battery of tests, the ministry recommends "that all girls/women of childbearing age" be given a pregnancy test.

The returnees will be allowed to stay at the hospital for as long as necessary and there will be follow-up visits from social workers and others.

"The professional recommendation is to maintain the continuity of treatment and psychological support by the hospital person with whom the contact was established, and therefore this should be allowed to the patient and his family even after release," the guidelines state.

The Israeli government approved the hostage deal at 1 a.m. on Saturday after over seven hours of debate, Walla reported.

The meeting was supposed to start at 3:30 p.m., but it did not begin until around 6:30 p.m. due to an ongoing discussion in Israel's security cabinet.

The security cabinet voted in favor of the hostage deal, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich voting against the deal. Both threatened to leave the government if a ceasefire deal was approved.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the cabinet that President-elect Donald Trump had given his full backing for Israel to restart the war should Hamas violate the agreement before phase two of the deal, Israeli media reported on Friday.

Netanyahu also told the cabinet that Trump would unfreeze weapons shipments, which he has claimed President Biden froze.

The Palestinian Authority said on Friday evening that they're ready to take full responsibility for governing the Gaza Strip, according to Friday reports citing Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's office.
Abbas's office issued this statement shortly after a hostage release, ceasefire deal was announced.

According to the statement, "The Palestinian government has completed all preparations to assume full responsibilities in the Strip and that the government administrative and security personnel were fully prepared to carry out their tasks in order to alleviate the suffering inflicted on the Gaza population, allow displaced persons to return to their houses, restore essential services to the Strip, assume responsibility for the border crossings and help commence Gaza reconstruction."

The Palestinian Authority also asked the international community to to offer urgent humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave in order "to enable the government to shoulder its responsibilities towards the Palestinian people," Palestinian state media WAFA reported.

The report also noted the PA commending efforts made by Qatar and Egypt, the mediators of the deal.

Blinken's disparagement of the PA
He continued by saying that this refusal "has only entrenched doubts among Israelis that the two communities can never live side by side in peace, as have the PA’s payments of the families of terrorists and the antisemitic remarks of its leader."

However, Blinken also slammed Israel for “systematically undermining the capacity and legitimacy” of the PA as "the only viable alternative to Hamas.

The long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza is scheduled to begin tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET).
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said the ceasefire is temporary and warned Israel would resume fighting if needed, affirming Israel's right to defend itself with U.S. backing.

Thirty-three Israeli hostages are set to be released from Gaza, including two Israeli Americans.
In exchange, 737 Palestinian prisoners and 1,167 Palestinians who were arrested in Gaza since the start of the war will be released.

At least 120 people in Gaza have been killed since the deal was announced on Wednesday, with Palestinian officials saying Israel has intensified its airstrikes ahead of the ceasefire.

Netanyahu: IDF to stay in Gaza; detainees to be deported and not returned to the West Bank
Netanyahu said the Israel Defense Forces will remain deployed inside and around Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement.

Netanyahu said troop deployment will be increased to secure the entire Philadelphi Corridor, which spans the border between Gaza and Egypt.

"We promised in the agreement that Israel would maintain full control of the Philadelphi axis and the security buffer that surrounds the entire Gaza Strip," he said. "Our forces will be deployed inside the Strip and will close it off from all sides."

The prime minister also said that detainees suspected of murder, who are set to be released as part of the deal, will not be brought back to the West Bank but will instead be deported to Gaza or abroad.

Jubilant Israelis welcomed the return Sunday evening of the first wave of hostages from the Gaza Strip, hours after Israel and Hamas' long-awaited ceasefire went into effect and spurred many displaced Palestinians to trek home by foot after 15 months of brutal conflict.

President Joe Biden celebrated the safe return of three female hostages — the first in a coordinated effort expected to continue in the coming days — and said a ceasefire was reached due to "the pressure Israel put on Hamas backed by the United States."

"Today, the guns in Gaza have gone silent," Biden said in televised remarks in his final full day in office.

Hundreds of aid trucks were beginning to enter Gaza, which has seen critical infrastructure destroyed in the wake of Israel's response to Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas led a cross-border terrorist attack that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken as hostages.

Gazans on Sunday took the rare opportunity to see what, if anything, was left of their homes after Israel's blistering offensive, which destroyed or damaged most of the enclave's buildings and displaced almost all of its 2 million residents. Amid the devastation, some celebrated in the streets to mark the beginning of the fragile truce. NBC News crews in Gaza captured large crowds of families moving near Rafah, in southern Gaza, mostly on foot.

One family was riding on a cart pulled by a donkey. “To Rafah, to Rafah, inside, in Gaza,” a smiling young boy exclaimed as he steered the cart.

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, a crowd cheered and clapped as the news came in that the hostages were in Red Cross custody just after 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) and then crossed safely into Israeli territory.

The released hostages are all young women: Doron Steinbrecher, 31, taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7, a veterinary nurse; Romi Gonen, 24, taken from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7; and Emily Damari, 28, a British Israeli citizen taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7 and a key figure in the kibbutz’s youth community.

Video shared by the Israeli military showed the three women getting out of a Red Cross vehicle and smiling and hugging waiting Israeli forces. Two of them had bandaged hands. They were later reunited with their mothers in Israel — with each pair of mothers and daughters embracing — and were due to be medically examined at a hospital near Tel Aviv.

Four additional living hostages are expected to be released in seven days, the coordinator for hostages, returnees and missing persons in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. It added that their families would be informed of the names of those to be released 24 hours prior to that date.

Biden said he anticipates at least two Americans will be released as part of this initial phase, as 33 hostages will be set free in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

The first Americans to be released will be Keith Siegel, 65, on Day 14 of the ceasefire, and then Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, who is injured, according to a senior administration official and a diplomatic official. The other five Americans, both alive and dead, will not be released until the second phase of the ceasefire deal, the officials said. They are expected to include a dual national, Edan Alexander, 20, whose condition is unknown.

Israel is set to release 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of the agreement, all of whom are children and women, according to the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs. For every hostage released, 30 Palestinian prisoners will be freed — 50 if the hostage is a soldier.

Initially set for 8:30 a.m. local time, the pause in fighting was delayed by a few hours and began after 11:15 a.m. Gaza's Civil Defense agency reported that at least 19 people were killed and 36 injured earlier after the delay was announced.

Eight of the remaining hostages set to be released by Hamas in the first phase of a ceasefire agreement with Israel are dead, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.

The rest of the 33 hostages who were expected to be returned from Gaza to their families are alive, David Mencer said in a briefing on Monday, including seven who have already been returned. Israeli authorities were notified of the hostages’ status after receiving a list from Hamas, he said.

According to Mencer, the eight dead were killed by Hamas. The Palestinian militant group has not commented on their cause of death.

Freed hostages spent over eight months in tunnels, says Israeli officer
The most recent hostages to be released from captivity were four female Israeli soldiers freed on January 25.

Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, all 20 years old, and Liri Albag, 19, were in stable condition, the hospital director of the Israeli facility where they received treatment told CNN on Saturday.

Israel had expected female civilian Arbel Yehud to be released and delayed the opening of a corridor to northern Gaza after she was not included.

On Monday, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a new video of Yehud, in which she refers to previous hostage releases – an apparent sign the footage was taken recently.

The video’s release comes amid intense Israeli pressure on Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, who have now said they will release her on Thursday, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

Yehud’s family has asked the media not to publish the video.

Several of the seven hostages released from Gaza in the past week had been held in tunnels for more than eight months, according to a senior Israeli military officer.

All seven women released so far showed symptoms of mild starvation with low vitamin levels, said Avi Benov, the deputy chief of the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps. Their mental health, he said, was a very complicated issue.

The former hostages were given vitamins and modest amounts of food during their first medical check-up at Israel’s Re’im military base, the officer said. They were asked if they wanted to shower and change clothes before meeting their parents and were reassured they were safe, he added.

Benov claimed that Hamas had fed them better and allowed them to wash and change clothes in the days before their release, for propaganda purposes.

He said the younger hostages were in better shape, adding that when the older captives start returning they will probably be in worse condition, having spent more than a year in captivity.

Benov declined to answer a question about whether there were physical signs the hostages were tortured. “They will tell their own stories,” he said.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip counted down the minutes on Monday until 7 A.M., after which they would be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza after being displaced for more than a year.

"It's like a holiday. This return north is our right to the land and to life," 53-year-old Najat, who is from Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, told Haaretz on Monday.

"We were uprooted at the beginning of the war to Deir al-Balah and then to Khan Yunis [in the southern Strip]. This is the first time that I'm returning to northern Gaza. There were people who tried to return several months ago but weren't successful. Now it's like a dream come true," she added.

Despite the family's loss of several buildings during the war and the destruction in Gaza City, Najat emphasized the importance of returning north. "We have no alternative. Even if we pitch a tent near our destroyed house, we wouldn't leave," she said.

Other Gazans with whom Haaretz spoke also expressed excitement about returning to the northern Strip. "We slept three whole days in the cold and waited for them to open the Netzarim corridor," said 29-year-old Ahmed, referring to the strip of land that divides northern Gaza from the rest of the territory.

"The destruction around us is severe and there are ruins everywhere I look, but I take solace in the thought that my mother and father are with me, and I've managed to help them deal with all the war's challenges," he said.

According to Ahmed, Palestinian families have joined forces to return to the northern Strip together. "We're going on foot and are sharing the burden of the things that we're taking back with us," he said.

Iman, a 36-year-old resident of Gaza City and mother of three, shared with Haaretz the story of returning home with her children, husband, parents and her brother's family.

"We took two cars from [the southern Gaza city of] Khan Yunis to the Netzarim corridor and from there, we continued on foot," she said.

"It cost a lot of money, about $100 per car. We loaded it with our tents, blankets, mattresses, small amount of food and some clothes. My parents struggled walking even for this stretch, but there are people who have no money and who have had to make the entire trip on foot," she said.

Iman tells of a number of private initiatives to help Gazans return to the northern Strip – which they compare to the Palestinians' claim to the right of return to homes that their families had in Israel before the 1948 War of Independence.

"Everyone wants to help on the trip back. It's a very important moment and excites everyone," she adds.

Iman's comments reflect the feeling of celebration. "Only after actually being in Gaza, after so many months of the sounds of explosions, of fear, of constant concern that one of the children would be harmed and the concern that there isn't sufficient medicine, food and water for them, one can understand this excitement," she said.

"I've imagined the moment in my mind several times; how we return to Gaza City. It's true that, currently, everything is vague in light of the massive destruction, but at least it can be viewed as our personal victory – that we held on."

Iman also spoke of the challenges that those returning north face along the way. "The roads aren't suitable or accessible for going on foot," she said.

"There are holes and debris as a result of tank traffic from Israeli forces. The highway infrastructure is also destroyed. There's no sign of asphalt. Everything is mud and water. But nevertheless, people are overcoming all of that and want to go back north."

Ibrahim, a 46-year-old father of four from Gaza City, who was displaced with his wife, children and other relatives first to Deir al-Balah and later to Khan Yunis, said that he told his children they might have no home to return to in Gaza City. He emphasized, however, that they had to go back with the determination to rebuild.

"They're excited about returning. From their standpoint, it's like a holiday," Ibrahim said of his children.

"Gaza City is my city, where I was born and grew up and got married and we won't leave. Where would we go?" he wondered. "I've followed the news. Every moment is nerve-wracking. Every statement about expulsions from the Strip has caused me concern. Now it's like arriving at a safe harbor."

"Our youngsters are going back [to the north] singing and drumming. It's a very joyous atmosphere," he said.

A reporter who spoke to Haaretz and asked not to be identified described the trip back as "a flood of people – tens of thousands of them – men, women, the elderly and children."

This vast movement, he said, was in both directions but for the most part to the northern Strip. Residents who had been trapped in the north can now go south and look for relatives whom the war separated them from, he said.

"Mothers hugging their children, grandfathers and grandmothers meeting with their grandchildren whom they hadn't seen for many months," he said, his voice filled with emotion.

"The people look tired, but they're happy to be returning. Some are carrying their belongings on their backs – tents, clothes. Everyone is going on foot," he said.

"They're walking dozens of kilometers to get to the area of the Netzarim corridor and even sleeping at night in the open to get back with the sunrise."

The Israeli army, he said, has withdrawn from the main road that people are taking to the north and those going on foot aren't being subject to inspection.

Ahmed says that residents of northern Gaza "had spent months in tents and had been fleeing from place to place for their lives, and there have been those who didn't even have a proper tent to stay in."

"It's joy mixed with sadness and maybe disappointment," he adds, "because most of the homes that they're retuning to are totally destroyed, and they're facing the unknown."

"The area in northern Gaza is mostly destroyed – particularly Jabalya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia – following the Israeli army's operations in the recent months of the war."

According to him, the residents "need every possible help" as they are returning "to a destroyed place that doesn't even have enough tents to house those returning, and the return will be difficult."

"They lived in tents in the southern Strip, and here, there isn't even the feasibility of such a possibility, meaning that they'll live in tents for a time. They're returning to nothing – nothing at all," Ahmed lamented.

Hamas plans to release three Israeli hostages on Thursday, including two women and an 80-year-old man, as well as five Thai nationals abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

The Hostages Families Forum said it had received news that Hamas will release the eight abductees. The forum is a volunteer-based group formed by the families of the abductees after the attack.

Among those the militant group plans to release is Arbel Yehoud, 29, whom Israeli officials had expected to be freed last weekend in the first phase of the ceasefire deal, in which a total of 33 hostages are expected to be released.

Kfir, now 2, was just under 9 months old when he was taken hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, along with his 5-year-old brother, Ariel, and their parents, Yarden and Shiri Bibas.

The other two Israelis expected to be released are Agam Berger, 20, and Gadi Moses, 80.

Berger was working as an observer at Nahal Oz base, where she arrived just two days prior to the Oct. 7 attack, and was captured alongside multiple other observers who have since been released.

Moses was living at kibbutz Nir Oz, where he was one of the founding members of the kibbutz's vineyard and gave lectures on agriculture. His partner was killed in the Oct. 7 attack, the hostage organization said.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, 30 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been released for civilian hostages and 50 for captive soldiers.

The truce between Israel and Hamas was put in jeopardy on Saturday after Israel blocked Palestinian civilians from moving back to their homes in northern Gaza. Israeli officials said that Hamas had violated the ceasefire agreement because it had failed to release Yehoud, a civilian, before captive soldiers.

Hamas similarly accused Israel of breaking the deal, fueling concerns that a ceasefire that has brought a pause to 15 months of deadly fighting in Gaza could be imperiled.

But on Monday, Qatar, a leading mediator in ceasefire negotiations, said that Yehoud would be freed along with two other hostages before Friday, soothing friction over the deal.

Yehoud was kidnapped from her home in kibbutz Nir Oz, of which her grandparents were founders, along with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, 27. The couple had just recently returned to Israel from a trip to South America.

Yehoud's brother, Dolev Yehoud, 25, was also initially believed to have been taken hostage into Gaza, but in September, Israel determined that he had been killed by Hamas on the day of the attacks and that his body had never left Israeli territory.

Cunio and his brother David, 34, remain held captive in Gaza, with neither expected to be released in the first phase of the deal.

Three more captives are expected to be released on Saturday in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Many across Israel are hopeful Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage to remain in Hamas' captivity, will be among them.

Hamas today freed eight hostages and Israel was set to release 110 Palestinian detainees and prisoners during the latest exchange in the ongoing ceasefire-hostage deal.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed the release of the Palestinians after calling the hostage handovers “horrific.” He later OK’d them, saying he had received assurances about future exchanges.

Agam Berger, 20, Arbel Yehoud, 29, and 80-year-old Gadi Moses were freed in Gaza. Five Thai nationals were also released: Thenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakham, Sriaoun Watchara, Seathao Bannawat and Rumnao Surasak.

As Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate and greet the released prisoners, Hamas confirmed the death of Mohammed al-Deif, the leader of its military wing.

As of today, a total of 15 hostages and 400 Palestinians will have been set free since Jan. 19.

The joy of thousands of Palestinian families who made it back home to north Gaza amid the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is turning to despair as the cold reality of uninhabitable, bombed-out homes and dire shortages of basic supplies sets in.

Many have begun complaining about a lack of running water that forces them to line up for hours to fill plastic containers for drinking or cleaning. With most homes now heaps of rubble as far as the eye can see, returnees have scoured whatever useful items remain from their property to erect makeshift tents.

At night, residential districts laid to waste by Israeli airstrikes and shelling during the fighting with Hamas sink into darkness for lack of electricity or fuel to operate standby generators.

“There is nothing, no life, no water, no food, no drink, nothing for living. Life is very, very hard. There is no Jabalia camp,” Hisham El-Err said on Wednesday, standing by the ruins of his multi-story house in the biggest and mostly densely populated of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps.

His extended family is now huddling in tents, which offer scant protection from Gaza’s mid-winter chill.

Permission for displaced Gazans to return to the north of the enclave was a key demand by Hamas in the ceasefire that halted the fifteen-month war it started on October 7, 2023, when it led thousands of terrorists to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 who were taken as hostages. Movement from south Gaza to the north began to be allowed on Monday.

By late on Tuesday, Gaza’s Hamas authorities said most of the 650,000 people displaced from the north by the war had re-entered Gaza City and the north edge of the enclave from areas to the south where fighting was less intense and destructive.

Many of those returning, often laden with what personal possessions they still had after months of being shunted around as battlegrounds shifted, had trekked 20 kilometers (12 miles) or more along the coastal highway.

Fahad Abu Jalhoum returned with his family to Jabalia from the al-Mawasi area in south Gaza but the destruction they found was so pervasive they had been forced to go back south.

“It’s just ghosts without souls (in the north),” Abu Jalhoum told Reuters back in Al Mawasi. “We all missed the north but when I went there I was shocked. So I returned to (the south) until we get relief from God.”

Hamas, Israel, spar over pace of aid deliveries
A Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity said smaller amounts of fuel, cooking gas, and tents had been brought into Gaza than what had been agreed in ceasefire negotiations, which Israel strongly denied.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the initial need for tents at 135,000, but the Hamas official said only around 2,000 had gotten in since the deal took effect on January 19.

He also said work to rehabilitate hospitals and bakeries knocked out by the fighting had not begun and urged mediators to ensure more aid flows in, adding that dissatisfaction among armed groups could affect the truce.

A spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli military agency that liaises with the Palestinians, said that tens of thousands of tents have entered Gaza since the ceasefire and that gas and fuel are being delivered daily in keeping with agreements.

In Jabalia, Khamis Amara returned to the ruins of his house to dig for the bodies of his father and brother, among the roughly 10,000 people missing and feared dead in Gaza, according to the local civil emergency service.

“I was once under the rubble with my father and brother, just as they still are. But I made it out,” Amara said.

“Life here is unbearable. Honestly, it’s all a lie. Those in the south should just stay there — it’s better for them.”

With their hands tightly intertwined, the four women stood with bated breath in a hospital waiting room. Having emerged from captivity mere days ago, their relief was incomplete, after being forced to leave their friend behind, alone in the hell of Gaza.

And then, she appeared around the corner. In an instant, they rushed toward each other, collapsing into a tangled embrace of joyful sobs. It was over.

The return of hostage Agam Berger Thursday and her reunion with her family, friends and her comrades in captivity brought to a close a horrendous chapter of the Gaza hostage saga, as the last of the female surveillance soldiers taken hostage during the October 7, 2023, attacks finally came home.

The story of Berger and the four other surveillance soldiers, who were freed on Saturday — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag — had become one of the causes célèbres of the struggle to free the hostages, fueled by the knowledge of their particular vulnerability as young women in captivity, reports that their pre-attack warnings were dismissed, and the horrific circumstances of their capture, amplified by the harrowing videos from that day.

The women were among over 20 border surveillance soldiers, “tatzpitaniot” in Hebrew, who fell victim to Hamas’s attack on the Nahal Oz Base on the morning of October 7, when hundreds of armed terrorists stormed the border outpost, in one of the most famous battles of that day. Dozens of soldiers were killed in heavy fighting as the base was overrun.

The surveillance soldiers, whose job it was to monitor cameras scanning every inch of the border, were not combat-trained, and were not armed. Some hid in a shelter while others hid inside the base’s command center, but both were overrun by the attackers, targeted with grenades and burned down. Fifteen young surveillance soldiers were slain that day, including the women’s beloved 20-year-old commander, Cpt. Shir Eilat.

Seven were taken captive. Of those seven, one, Ori Megidish, was freed by special forces in Gaza weeks after the attack, while another, Noa Marciano, was murdered in captivity. Videos of the capture of the five others horrified the nation.

Beyond the shock of the events surrounding their capture, the dismissal of surveillance soldiers’ alleged repeated warnings to their commanders of ominous doings near the border in the period before the attack has emerged as a key failure among the many that enabled the invasion and massacres to take place.

The five young women were kept together for much of their time in captivity and developed a strong bond. Thursday’s reunion took place at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, where all five women are receiving care after their return from almost a year and a half in Hamas captivity.

In a sign of their closeness, the four freed on Saturday said they planned to stay at the hospital over the coming days, despite being eligible for release, to remain at their friend’s side.

Berger’s return Thursday alongside civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud also means only one more female hostage remains in Gaza after over 15 months: Shiri Bibas, whose fate, along with those of her two young boys, remains unknown. Israel says it has “grave concerns” for their fate.

According to multiple Hebrew media reports, the four who were released on Saturday told friends and family that it was very hard to leave Berger behind on Saturday. Channel 12 reported that Albag had refused to leave Berger’s side, and only did so when their captors lied to her, telling her they were only leaving to film a video and would return.

Dr. Lena Koren Feldman, director of Rabin Medical Center, said that when the four former hostages saw Berger being released, “there were screams of joy and great excitement.”

“Her return marks an essential step in their collective healing,” Feldman said.

At the hospital, the four had prepared welcome signs for Berger, reading “hero,” “queen,” “We’ve been waiting for you,” and “Agami, it’s so great that you’re home,” and hanged them on the door of the room prepared for her.

Closure for the bereaved
Following Berger’s release, Nir Eilat, the bereaved sister of the women’s fallen commander, Cpt. Shir Eilat, wrote on Instagram: “It’s over my angel. You can rest in peace. Your soldiers have returned.”

Shir’s mother Ayelet Eilat said the hostages’ return marked a “point of light” and “a sort of closure for our personal and national nightmare.”

“We’ve waited for this moment since October 2023, from the second we understood the blow that was dealt to Nahal Oz. Our heart is with the hostages, Shir’s soldiers, who managed to survive hell. It’s a point of light in the darkness,” she said.

After acknowledging that “the pain of the difficult personal loss of our daughter Shir hasn’t ended,” calling her grief “a continuing nightmare,” Ayelet told news outlets that Shir’s father had refused to say of their daughter, “May she rest in peace,” vowing to only do so “when her soldiers had returned home.”

“Now is the time to say it. May all of the hostages return home. It’s our duty to them,” she said.

Eyal Eshel, whose daughter Roni Eshel served alongside Berger at Nahal Oz and was killed on October 7, wrote on X: “Beloved Agam, the last surveillance soldier from Nahal Oz, is finally returning home now. The nightmare… is over.”
Eshel called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the disaster — which the government has so far resisted.

Also speaking of a “sort of a closure” on Thursday was Sapir Nissani, whose sister Shahaf Nassani, another surveillance soldier, was killed at Nahal Oz just days before she was set to complete her military service.

The release in recent days of Israeli hostages from their hellish Gazan captivity has attuned the country to a grim and wrenching emotional experience, as the nation watches with horrified attention as hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups are released amid the tumult of Gazan crowds clamoring around the captives.

This terror and trepidation abates once the hostages are transferred, to be replaced by a tearful joy at the redemption of those who were kept in traumatic captivity for so long.

But these scenes are just one side of a multifaceted coin, the flip sides of which are the release of Palestinian security prisoners, including hardened terrorists with blood on their hands, and the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to northern Gaza, under the terms of the ceasefire agreement Israel signed with Hamas.

This complex reality has profound significance in particular for residents of the western Negev region, otherwise known as the Gaza envelope, the cluster of kibbutzim, moshavim, towns and small communities that bore the brunt of the invasion and massacres perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

On Thursday morning, the pastoral beauty and tranquility of the Netiv Ha’asara moshav seemed a world away from the stomach-turning scenes in Jabalia and Khan Younis from where three Israelis and five Thai hostages were released.

Bougainvillea in garish pink and pastel orange ran riot across the white walls and green verges of the moshav, the branches of lemon trees weighed heavy with their bright yellow fruit, and blue skies crowned Netiv Ha’asara’s idyllic countryside location.

But Jabalia, whose Hamas rulers have apparently returned, lies just a short journey from the rural charm of Netiv Ha’asara and the home of one of its founders Moira Dror, whose house lies just a few dozen yards from the Gaza border itself.

On October 7, a small number of Hamas terrorists crossed over Gaza’s northern border, entered the moshav, and went house to house murdering 20 people in the community. Dror and her husband Gil hid in their safe room for ten hours, before escaping in their car.

Dror was watching her television Thursday morning with transfixed horror as Hamas paraded Agam Berger, the last female Israeli soldier held by the terror group, across a stage in front of a Gazan crowd, escorted by masked, armed terrorists and amid the ruins of Jabalia.

But despite her vociferously expressed revulsion to Hamas’s treatment of Israel’s hostages, and her concern over the concessions made by Israel to the terror group, Dror is certain, without any doubt, that the ceasefire and hostage release agreement was the right thing to do.

“We want the hostages to come back at any price,” she insisted and said she very much hopes that the government follows through with the second phase of the deal as well to ensure that all the remaining hostages are released.

“That’s the only way the country can get back to something like normality.”

But she is under no illusions as to the price Israel is paying for the release of the hostages, nor the reality in Gaza, despite the “total victory” Israel was promised by its leaders in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

“Obviously Hamas is back in power in Gaza; in fact, they’ve never not been in power. Is that victory? It’s not victory,” she said calmly.

Netanel Sarrusi, a religious resident of nearby Sderot who has been involved in efforts by the local authority to rehabilitate the town following Hamas’s devastating attacks, was similarly despondent at the current reality of Gaza’s governance.

Like Dror, Sarussi hid with his wife and four children in their safe room for many hours on October 7 with the sounds of gunfire and explosions all around them, until they too deemed it safe to leave, and fled the town.

Hamas massacred some 50 civilians in Sderot on October 7, and another 20 police officers were killed fighting the terrorists for control of the town.

Sarrusi described the scenes witnessed on Thursday during the release of the hostages as “the trampling of the honor of the people of Israel.” And he said the image of Hamas in control in Jabalia, as well as the return of some 350,000 Gazans to northern Gaza in recent days — in line with a key pledge by Israel as part of the hostage release agreement — showed clearly that “the job has not been finished, and the promised victory has not been delivered.”

“We saw today how they nearly lynched [hostages] Gadi Mozes and Arbel Yehoud. We saw all these supposedly uninvolved innocents. We saw it also on October 7 with the people who came to loot, who rejoiced at the murder and rape of the girls, who rejoiced at the kidnappings,” he said.

In the last few days, “when we saw the pictures of Gazans going back to northern Gaza, for us those were very difficult scenes,” he continued.

Sarrusi said the depopulation of northern Gaza and the distancing of the Gazan population from the western Negev during the war had brought a sense of calm to the residents of Sderot. But now, “all of a sudden, the same people who were partners in October 7, with or without weapons, are back.”

For Sarussi, this is an unacceptable situation, and he says that to ensure the security of the region, and Israel in general, the war must be restarted and the IDF must re-enter northern Gaza and remain there permanently in order to defend the border communities.

“The residents here are really worried about the Gazans returning, I’m telling you. They’re freeing murderers. This is an incredible tailwind for terrorism. We have returned to October 7.”

Accepting the hard reality that returning to war would mean not all the hostages are released, Sarrusi said Israel should adopt tactics after the resumption of fighting “to make them crawl to us on all fours and say ‘take these hostages and leave us’.”

This would involve “turning off their electricity, turning off their water and their food, and bombing them ceaselessly,” he said starkly.

Several kilometers further south, Eric Isaacson, a long-time resident of the religious Kibbutz Alumim was, like Sarussi, highly concerned about the results of the agreement with Hamas, although he demurred from offering such extreme solutions as those proposed by the Sderot resident.

On October 7, several dozen Nukhba terrorists, Hamas’s “elite” commando unit, entered the kibbutz and massacred 22 of the foreign workers employed by Alumim in their living quarters, injured another nine, and took two hostage.

But the kibbutz’s security squad managed to repel the assailants, who were never able to enter the residential area of Alumim, and as a result were prevented from murdering the kibbutz members.

The terrorists did, however, do massive damage to Alumim’s agricultural infrastructure, destroying the dairy farm, burning down greenhouses, barns and chicken sheds with hundreds of thousands of chickens inside, and destroying cattle feed, feeding machines, silos, and other agricultural facilities.

They had a lust for blood which is hard to believe

“The sheer evil they planned is hard to imagine for people who don’t live here and haven’t seen the scale of destruction,” said Isaacson, who underlined that he was speaking very much in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the kibbutz.

“They had a lust for blood which is hard to believe. That is the primitive, disgusting nature of these people.”

Despite the lengthy war, Isaacson is worried that Hamas has not been defeated, and that the price Israel has paid for the ceasefire agreement with the terror group, releasing hundreds of convicted terrorists, may cost the country dear in the future, as previous deals have done.

“How many terrorists were given back for Gilad Shalit?” demanded Isaacson in reference to the 2011 deal in which over a thousand Palestinian prisoners were released for the return of the IDF soldier, including Yahya Sinwar, the now deceased Hamas leader and mastermind of the October 7 attacks.

“We’ve done exactly the same [now]. We’ve released more Sinwars. People who murdered in the most horrible way, people who are filled with hate. We gave a thousand for Shalit. What did they learn? They learned that next time they’ll capture 250.”

Despite his dismay at the mass release of Palestinian terrorists, Isaacson said he did not know what the alternative was if Israel wanted to secure the release of its hostages.

But he insisted that the government now has an even greater responsibility to ensure the security of the Gaza border communities.

And Isaacson has no faith that the blows sustained by Hamas will create a long-term change in how it acts, pointing to comments made by Hamas’s leadership that it will continue to fight Israel and carry out more October 7-style atrocities.

“We’ve set them back to an extent, but only to an extent. Gazans aren’t saying Hamas is wrong; nothing has changed in their behavior. We need to change ours, and learn from our mistakes.”

Furthermore, he does not feel secure. “I don’t feel safe, how can I feel safe? Because I extrapolate from [the] Gilad Shalit [deal], and we’ve just released hundreds of murderers who hate with every cell of their body.”

Isaacson acknowledged wearily that there were no easy solutions to the situation, stating that “generations” of Palestinians have been taught to hate Jews, and that only “re-education” over the course of at least two generations would reverse the situation.

This can only come about by changing the governance of Gaza, he said, but he is also at a loss for how that might happen, including because of the realities witnessed on the ground since the ceasefire agreement took hold.

Despite the severe trepidation many western Negev region residents plainly feel with the ceasefire agreement and all it entails, all those who spoke with this reporter expressed a sense of resilience, determination, and defiance in the face of the difficult reality that has now developed so near to their homes.

Sarrusi spoke enthusiastically about the “demographic growth” in Sderot, which he said has not only recovered its pre-October 7 population but grown beyond it, describing it as “a miracle.” He compared the expansion to prosperity enjoyed by the Biblical figure of Isaac in the same region, thousands of years ago.

“There are new neighborhoods, there is great activity in the fields of culture, education and others, and there is great development,” he said animatedly.

Meanwhile, Dror was adamant she would never leave her home in Netiv Ha’asara despite the risks, which she openly acknowledged, and her incredibly close proximity to Gaza itself, which she can easily see from her house.

Dror and her husband returned to Netiv Ha’asara just six months after the Hamas assault, two of only four residents in the deserted moshav at the time, after rejecting the use of state-paid rented accommodation in Ashkelon.

“It wasn’t my home. I need my home, the smell of my home. My resilience is here in the house and not anywhere else,” she said fervently.

Dror has refused to put bars on her home or build a wall around it, as a number of Netiv Ha’asara residents have done, saying that she trusts the army to protect her and that if she were to fortify her house she might as well just leave.

“This land is in the State of Israel, I’m not leaving here. People don’t pack their bags when there are terror attacks in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv either,” she pointed out. “I’m not giving Hamas that vict

Keith Siegel, an American citizen who was held hostage by Hamas for 484 days, was released on Saturday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Why it matters: Siegel is the first American hostage who was released by Hamas since November 2023.

Six American hostages are still held by Hamas, two of them are still alive.
Driving the news: Siegel, 65, was kidnapped by Hamas from his home in the Kibbutz of Kfar Aza during the October 7 attack with his wife Aviva Siegel.

Aviva Siegel was released in the first hostage deal in November.

Two other Israel hostages — Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas — were also released on Saturday.

Bibas' wife and two babies were also kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Hamas claimed they have been killed while in captivity by an IDF air strike. The IDF didn't confirm that. They are still held in Gaza.

What we're watching: American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen is expected to be released later this month as part of the first phase of the deal.

American hostage Edan Alexander will be released only if Israel and Hamas reach an agreement on the second phase of the deal.

Negotiations on the second phase are expected to begin on Monday.

Four Americans who were killed on October 7 and their bodies taken to Gaza — Etay Chen, Omer Neutra and Judi Weinstein and Haggai — will only be returned on the third phase of the deal.

State of play: About 180 Palestinian prisoners, among them those who were convicted of murdering Israelis, were released on Saturday.

As part of the ceasefire deal, the Rafah crossing was opened for the first time on Saturday after almost a year of being shut down.

50 wounded Palestinians, including children, left Gaza through the crossing on Saturday for medical treatment in Egypt.
The crossing was opened without any Hamas involvement and with Palestinian staffers who are affiliated with the Palestinian Authority together with European Union monitors.

This is the first time the Palestinian Authority has resumed its activity in Gaza since the Hamas military coup in 2007.

Hamas used the prisoner-captive exchange deal as a spectacle to assert its control over the Gaza Strip, sending a clear message that "Israel" is powerless to stop it, a The Wall Street Journal report on Friday highlighted.

The WSJ wrote that the pattern began two weeks ago when the first Israeli captives were released as part of the ceasefire agreement.

Armed Hamas soldiers released captives on Thursday in front of the rubble of martyr Yahya al-Sinwar's house.

According to The Wall Street Journal report, this time, the captives faced difficulties exiting Hamas vehicles as crowds gathered again to receive and photograph them. The Red Cross vehicles were not present, leaving the captives to navigate through the crowds with their armed militants providing protection.

Regional analysts say Hamas has turned each round of captive releases in Gaza into a more complex event, using it as a display of power to humiliate the Israeli occupation.

According to the report, "Israel" responded angrily to the spectacle, announcing it would not release 110 Palestinian detainees as agreed in the deal. However, mediators, including the US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, quickly intervened to ensure the agreement remained intact. Ultimately, "Israel" released the detainees.

With its military operations paused and troops positioned on Gaza's outskirts, "Israel" has little ability to stop Hamas from turning captive releases into public displays. That said, Hugh Lovatt, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Hamas aims to "demonstrate its strength and prestige in Gaza."

'Hamas is Gaza, and Gaza is Hamas'
On Friday, Israeli anger and concerns emerged when Hamas documented its prisoner exchanges in a manner that suited it, dismissing the occupation's demands that it withdraw its forces and elements, while also disregarding a key Israeli demand to withhold the deployment of police officers throughout the Gaza Strip.

Yossi Yehoshua, Yedioth Ahronoth's military analyst, said, "There is no authority alternative in Gaza; Gaza is Hamas, and Hamas is Gaza," adding that Donald Trump's plot to implement "voluntary evacuations" from Gaza must be considered in the absence of other solutions.

He also discussed the situation in the West Bank, saying it currently poses the greatest danger to Israelis.

"Tulkarm is one meter away from Kafaruna. They have organized battalions, like the Jenin Battalion and the Tulkarm Battalion. We wake up in the morning to a siren, which lasts for three or four hours, with a distance of no more than 3 km," Yehoshua stated, noting that the possibility of another October 7 is "dangerously tangible" in the West Bank.

Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized the scenes from Gaza on Thursday, saying, "The images coming from Gaza confirm that what has happened so far was not a complete victory but a complete failure."

Ben-Gvir further stated that "this prisoner exchange deal is unprecedented, and the Israeli government has chosen the path of submission," referring to the concessions made by the regime to secure the release of Israeli captives.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, stated that "the images from Gaza prove that we must separate from it forever." Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also expressed concern, saying, "We are worried about the price we are paying for this deal, despite our joy at the return of the hostages."