Israel and Hamas reach Gaza ceasefire and hostage release de

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Three Israeli hostages, Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56, have crossed into their homeland after they were transfered to their country's military by the Red Cross.

Hamas had earlier handed them over to the aid agency in Gaza's central city of Deir al-Balah after parading them on a stage and interviewing them.

In exchange, Israel has started to free Palestinian prisoners from the Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank. A spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said 183 would be released in a statement yesterday.

Hamas also accused Israel of multiple breaches of their ceasefire agreement by delaying the entry of hundreds trucks carrying food and other humanitarian supplies for people returning to their bombed-out homes.

So far, 16 Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been freed in the first, 42-day phase of the agreement.

Israeli leaders denounce condition of the hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vowed to “take appropriate measures” after today’s hostage release, pointing to “the serious condition of the three hostages.”

The freed captives looked gaunt as they were paraded on stage by Hamas just before the were transferred into the custody of the Red Cross, and they were also interviewed on stage by one of the fighters.

Netanyahu has “instructed to now allow the situation to go unaddressed,” a statement from his office said, without giving further details.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog said in separate statement the hostages were “being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle,” after suffering “491 days of hell.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader meets with senior Hamas officials, state media reports
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with acting Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya and two other leaders of the Palestinian group in Tehran on Saturday, Iranian state TV reported.

“You defeated the Zionist regime, which was in fact America’s defeat,” Khamenei, whose country supports Hamas in its war with Israel, told the Palestinian delegation. “You did not allow them to achieve any of their goals.”

Iranian TV said the Palestinian leaders were in Tehran to congratulate Khamenei on the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution. They expressed gratitude for Iran’s continued support.

The delegation, which also included Mohammad Darwish, head of Hamas’ leadership council, and top Hamas official Nizar Awadallah, presented Khamenei a report on the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank, and “the victories and successes that were achieved”.

Jubilant scenes in the occupied West Bank as first prisoners arrive in Ramallah
There were jubilant scenes in the occupied West Bank today as a group of freed Palestinian prisoners arrived in the city of Ramallah earlier.

Some smiled and waved while others shed tears and they greeted their relatives.

Some of the freed Palestinian prisoners were in 'poor health condition,' Red Crescent says
Seven of the Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel today have been taken to hospital due to “their poor health condition,” according to the Red Crescent.

Hamas said yesterday that 183 would be freed today

Seventy percent of the Israeli public is in favor of continuing to the second phase of the hostage release and ceasefire deal with Hamas, according to a television poll aired Friday, which found a nearly identical figure backs US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip.

Channel 12 news said 21% of respondents are against the second stage of the agreement, which would see the release of around 24 living male hostages, and some 35 dead hostages, in return for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.

The bodies of other captives would be returned in a third phase.

The remaining nine percent of respondents told the network they did not know whether they favor or oppose continuing to the deal’s second stage, negotiations on which were slated to begin this week.

Among those who voted for Netanyahu’s right-religious coalition, parts of which opposed the current deal, 54% back the second stage, versus 36% who are against and the remainder not knowing.

The survey also asked Israelis if they are for or against Trump’s plan to move Palestinians out of Gaza, with 69% in favor and 18% opposed. The remaining respondents did not know.

Favorability marks were far higher among coalition voters, with 90% of those included in the survey expressing support.

Despite the plan’s popularity, half of respondents say they don’t believe it will ultimately come to fruition, compared to 36% who think it will.

Channel 12 did not say how many people took part in the poll, which was conducted by Mano Geva’s Midgam polling company in cooperation with the iPanel online research firm, or provide a margin of error.

Released hostages Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami crossed the border into Israeli territory on Saturday and arrived at the initial reception point after they were transferred to Israeli forces by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

An initial medical examination reported to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Sheba Medical Center revealed that the former hostages were in serious condition. They appeared starved and may have lost some 30% of their overall weight.

Previously, the Red Cross had received the hostages from Hamas in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Earlier, ICRC vehicles arrived in the central Gazan city to collect the three from the Hamas terrorist organization, and Red Cross personnel signed documents given by Hamas for their release.

Appearing frail and being supported by Hamas terrorists, the three hostages were forced to speak onstage before being handed over to the ICRC.

The gaunt appearance of the released hostages—who have lost significant weight due to extreme starvation, surviving on minimal carbohydrates with no protein, vitamins, or minerals—was immediately visible. But beyond the outward signs, they likely suffer from severe multi-system damage, requiring urgent medical care in Israel.

The human body relies on a continuous supply of energy and nutrients to function properly. When deprived of food for extended periods, it enters a metabolic emergency mode, breaking down fat and muscle to sustain itself. This leads to dramatic physical changes, offering clear evidence of severe malnutrition.

One key indicator of nutritional status is Body Mass Index (BMI). A BMI below 18 is classified as severe malnutrition, while a BMI below 13 is considered life-threatening, indicating the body has lost critical amounts of fat and muscle.

1. Pronounced cheekbones
Under normal conditions, cheeks are supported by a layer of fat and muscle. In cases of prolonged starvation, these fat reserves deplete, and the muscles weaken, resulting in sharp, hollow facial features.

2. Sunken facial skin and eyes
Loss of subcutaneous fat causes the skin to sag, losing its elasticity and support. This gives the face a hollow, dehydrated look. Around the eyes—where the skin is particularly delicate—deep hollows form, creating a fatigued and sickly appearance.

3. Prominent Adam’s apple
Severe malnutrition leads to significant muscle loss around the neck, making the Adam’s apple highly visible. This causes the neck to appear frail and thin, sometimes exposing the underlying bones.

4. Protruding collarbones
In healthy individuals, the clavicle (collarbone) is cushioned by a layer of fat and muscle. In cases of extreme starvation, these layers deplete, making the bones stand out sharply.

5. Widespread muscle wasting
A severe lack of protein and calories forces the body to break down its own muscle mass for energy. This leads to significant muscle shrinkage throughout the body, including in the arms, legs, face, and chest, giving an emaciated appearance.

Beyond appearance: The hidden dangers of starvation
Extreme starvation doesn’t just affect physical appearance—it wreaks havoc on overall health. The immune system weakens, body temperature drops, and individuals experience extreme fatigue and deep depression. In the most severe cases, the damage may be irreversible, leading to long-term complications in the cardiovascular system, bones, and nervous system.

Muscle wasting also affects the heart, reducing its ability to function properly. The weakening of respiratory muscles between the ribs can cause breathing difficulties, and the digestive system muscles may atrophy, further complicating recovery.

Rehabilitation from such conditions requires intensive medical supervision, including gradual refeeding and close monitoring of organ function to prevent life-threatening complications such as refeeding syndrome and mitigate the damage caused by prolonged starvation.

Released hostage Eli Sharabi’s first request when he was back in Israel was to see his family, because he was unaware that his wife and two daughters were murdered in the Hamas onslaught on October 7, 2023, Hebrew media reported.

Sharabi’s wife Lianne and their daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were killed in their home’s safe room at Kibbutz Be’eri, and he and his elder brother Yossi were taken captive.

Yossi has since been confirmed dead, and Hamas is holding his body.

According to Channel 12 news, Sharabi was notified of his wife and daughters’ deaths after his return from the Gaza Strip. He was initially reunited with his mother Hannah and sister Osnat, and subsequently with other members of his family. His family was reportedly given advice on how to break the terrible news.

He was already aware that Yossi had been killed, as Hamas announced the death, to great applause, as masked terrorists paraded Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah before handing the emaciated hostages to the Red Cross on Saturday morning.

It was unclear if Sharabi knew of Yossi’s death beforehand.

Like Sharabi, Levy also returned to tragedy. His wife Eynav Elkayam Levy was murdered in the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival, where Or Levy was abducted.

He spoke with their 3-year-old son Almog in a video call after being released. “Dad, it took you a long time to come back,” Almog told his father.

Sharabi and Ben Ami are longtime friends from Kibbutz Be’eri, which was ravaged in the Hamas onslaught. The community said in a statement that Sharabi “is coming back from one impossible reality in captivity, to a most terrible reality in Israel.”

Hamas has said the next hostage release scheduled to take place in Gaza on Saturday will be postponed “until further notice,” accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire deal.

Israel described the postponement as a “complete violation of the ceasefire” and called on the Israeli military to prepare for “any possible scenario” in Gaza.

In a post on X, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, said that the handover of the prisoners “who were scheduled to be released next Saturday … will be postponed until further notice, and until the occupation commits to and compensates for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively.”

He added: “We affirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation commits to them.”

In a separate statement, Hamas said the move “serves as a warning” to Israel and was meant to pressure it into “fully honoring” the terms of the ceasefire deal.

“By issuing this statement five full days ahead of the scheduled prisoner handover, Hamas aims to grant mediators sufficient time to pressure the occupation to fulfill its obligations,” the statement read. “This also leaves the door open for the exchange to proceed as planned, provided the occupation complies.”

Abu Obeida detailed various alleged violations of the agreement by Israel over the past three weeks, including “delaying the return of the displaced to the northern Gaza Strip, targeting them with shelling and gunfire in various areas of the Strip, and not allowing the entry of relief supplies in all their forms according to what was agreed upon.” Hamas also accused Israel of not allowing tents, prefabricated houses, fuel, or rubble-removing mechanisms into the Strip. It alleged Israel was also delaying the entry of essential medicines and hospital supplies.

In response to Hamas’ announcement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the country’s military to “prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza.”

The defense minister described Hamas’ postponement as a “complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the deal to release the hostages.”

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently holding consultations with his security leadership team, an Israeli official told CNN. A political-security cabinet meeting initially scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday local time is also being moved up to the morning hours due to Hamas’ announcement, the official said.

Time is of the essence’
Hamas’ threat comes at a sensitive time for Israel, with pressure mounting on the government to complete the deal and release all the hostages after the gaunt, frail appearance of the male hostages released on Saturday sparked shock and outrage.

At protests in Tel Aviv on Monday night, crowds called for the hostages to be released and accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the deal.

“The Israeli government just torpedoed the deal. The prime minister just torpedoed the deal, and the hostages are not expected to return on Shabbat. We cannot accept this,” Danny Elgarat, the brother of 69-year old Itzhak Elgarat, said in a video seen by CNN. Itzhak was supposed to be released under the first phase of the Gaza deal, according to the Israeli government.

Following the news, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said it had requested urgent assistance from mediating countries to “help restore and implement” the ceasefire deal.

President Trump on Monday suggested he might end a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas if all hostages being held in Gaza are not released by the end of the week, warning that if the deal does not go through, “all hell is going to break out.”

“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock — I think it’s an appropriate time — I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after signing another array of executive orders.

“And if they’re not returned — all of them, not in drips and drabs, not two, and one, and three, and four and two. Saturday at 12 o’clock. And after that, I would say all hell is going to break out,” he added.

Trump, who speculated that many of the hostages are already dead, made clear he was speaking for himself and that Israel could override him.

Asked what he meant by “all hell will break out,” Trump told reporters, “Hamas will find out what I mean.”

The ceasefire will be over and Israel will resume “intense fighting” in Gaza if Hamas doesn’t release “our hostages” by midday Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement Wednesday evening, after a four-hour security cabinet meeting.

“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” he declared.

The premier said that the security cabinet “welcomed [US President Donald] Trump’s demand for the release of our hostages by Saturday noon, and we all also welcomed the president’s revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza.”

The meeting came a day after Hamas said it would delay Saturday’s hostage release until further notice due to what it claimed were “Israeli violations” of the truce.

Later on Tuesday evening, Hamas issued a statement claiming it was “committed to the ceasefire agreement that the (Israeli) occupation also committed to,” and asserting that Israel was “the party that did not abide by its commitments and is responsible for any complications or delays.” However, it did not say that it would release three hostages on Saturday as required by the deal.

Before and after the prime minister’s video statement, Israeli officials made several contradictory and conflicting messages about the number of hostages that Israel is demanding be released by Saturday.

First, an Israeli official said that the security cabinet “unanimously” backed Trump’s call for hostages to be released Saturday, in carefully worded Hebrew comments that stopped short of a complete endorsement of the US president’s position, and notably did not refer to “all” hostages.

“All cabinet members expressed support for US President Donald Trump’s demand for the release of our hostages by noon on Shabbat,” the key sentence specified.

Next, an Israeli official said that Jerusalem would not move forward with the hostage release-ceasefire deal unless Hamas released “all nine hostages… in the coming days.” There are 17 hostages still set to return during the current first phase of the ceasefire, nine of whom are believed to be alive.

“Hamas violated the agreement,” this official said, “and therefore there will not be progress in continuing to carry out the agreement or in negotiations on the second stage without the return of our hostages.

About 15 minutes after Netanyahu had released his video statement, an Israeli official told the Ynet news site that the security cabinet “partially adopted” Trump’s demands. “We are relying on the US president’s ultimatum and we want to see how Hamas reacts,” the official said.

“Since we didn’t violate the agreement, but rather Hamas did, there is justification for our side violating the agreement. Israel is saying: ‘Hold me back.’ We want to see how Hamas responds to this,” this official said. “There’s a reason Netanyahu didn’t give a number” of hostages to be released by Saturday in his statement, said the official.

Finally, however, about an hour after Netanyahu’s had issued his video statement, a senior official said that Israel is demanding that “all of them” be released by Hamas.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu and the cabinet are sticking to US President Trump’s message about the release of hostages,” this official said. “That is, that all of them will go out on Shabbat.”

At the same time, even this senior official did not use the actual phrase “all the hostages,” potentially leaving room, at a stretch, for an interpretation according to which Israel is demanding all the three hostages slated to be released on Saturday, or all the nine living hostages to be released in the first phase.

The numerous statements from Netanyahu and the unnamed Israeli officials came after, earlier in the day, Channel 12 reported that Israel would continue to adhere to the ceasefire deal with Hamas if the terror group released the sixth group of hostages on Saturday in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

Security chiefs: Don’t stop the hostage releases
On Wednesday evening, Channel 12 reported that Israeli security chiefs have told the political leadership that Israel needs to try to see phase one of the Gaza deal through to its end, and get out as many hostages as possible.

“We need to show restraint right now, to completely finish phase one,” the TV report quoted an unnamed security source as saying. “We must not cut off the dynamic of the hostage releases. The framework is working. The mediators are guaranteeing the agreement and there’s no real reason to stop the sequence right now.”

The report also quoted an unnamed military source, adding: “We have very significant offensive tools and are giving [the political leadership] all the options. One has to understand how things develop and take President Trump’s ultimatum and leverage it effectively to secure the release of as many hostages as possible.

“If there is no progress that gets the deal back on track, decisions must be made,” the source added. “Hamas is being faced with the massive scale of destruction [in Gaza], is counting the dead and publishing the list of its dead commanders.”

“As regards the burly young men in the crisply ironed uniforms at the hostage release ceremonies,” the military source sneered, “it’s likely that these are operatives who were too scared to get entangled with IDF troops, and hid out in humanitarian zones until the ceasefire started. And we will know how to go back and hit them.”

Wednesday’s security cabinet meeting, which was called to discuss Israel’s response to the Hamas announcement that it would freeze future hostage releases until further notice, stretched for four hours. An Israeli official described the Hamas announcement as a decision by the terror group “to breach the deal.”

The meeting was “thorough and in-depth,” according to the official.

The statement added that the security cabinet “unanimously” supports Trump’s “revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza,” referring to the president’s stated post-war plans for “voluntary” but permanent relocation of the entirety of the Strip’s population outside of the enclave.

Hamas said on Tuesday that Trump’s threat to “let hell break out” on Gaza if all hostages are not returned by Saturday “has no value and further complicates matters.”

“Trump must remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties and this is the only way to return the prisoners,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP, referring to the hostages.