Release of Gaza hostages expected to begin on Sunday, says Netanyahu’s office
The release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.
“Subject to the approval of the cabinet and the government, and the implementation of the agreement, the release of the hostages can proceed according to the planned framework, with the hostages expected to be released as early as Sunday,” the office said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse.
Key events
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel met in Cairo Friday to set out “mechanisms” for implementing the truce in Gaza, state-linked media reported.
Citing an informed Egyptian source, Al-Qahera News said technical meetings started in Cairo on Friday “to put mechanisms for implementing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza with the participation of Egyptian, Qatari, US and Israeli teams”, ahead of expected implementation of the deal on Sunday.
United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, on Friday urged an end to Israel’s “continued occupation” and “military operations” in south Lebanon, after a November ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The continued occupation by the Israel [military] inside the Unifil area operations and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory are violations of resolution 1701 … They must stop,” he told members of the UN peacekeeping force as he visited them, referring to the UN security council decision that ended a 2006 war between both sides.
Also on Friday, Guterres said peacekeepers ha discovered more than “100 weapons caches” belonging to Hezbollah and its allies in south Lebanon since a ceasefire between the group and Israel.
UN peacekeepers “uncovered over 100 weapons caches belonging to Hezbollah or other armed groups since 27 November,” he said, adding that the “presence of armed personnel, assets and weapons” other than those of the Lebanese army and the Unifil peacekeeping force violated a UN security council decision that ended a 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Further on the report that two sources close to Hamas told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the first group of hostages to be released consists of three Israeli women soldiers (see 11.26am GMT), here is some more detail via the news agency:
However, since Hamas considers any Israeli of military age who has completed mandatory service as a soldier, the reference could also apply to civilians abducted during the 7 October 2023 attack.
The first three names on a list obtained by AFP of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase are women under 30 who were not in military service on the day of the Hamas attack.
Israeli security cabinet meeting to discuss ceasefire deal
Here is an image from the Israeli security cabinet discussion today at the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
The Security Cabinet discussion has begun, at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Before the meeting, an operational security assessment was held on the implementation of the agreement, chaired by Prime Minister Netanyahu, together with the negotiating team which has returned from Doha pic.twitter.com/3uPMwTSO3U
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) January 17, 2025
Two sources close to Hamas have told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that three Israeli female soldiers would be the first to be released on Sunday evening. They would be received by Red Cross aid workers as well as Egyptian and Qatari teams, one source said on condition of anonymity.
“They will then be transported to Egypt, where they will be handed over to the Israeli side present there to complete the handover and conduct necessary medical examinations,” the source told AFP.
“Afterward, they will be transported directly to Israel. (Israel) is then expected to release the first group of Palestinian prisoners, including several with high sentences,” the source added.
The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the report.
On Wednesday, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported coordination was under way to reopen the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). It was one of the main humanitarian entry points but has been closed since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side in May.
The ceasefire deal is based on a plan Joe Biden presented in mid-2024 that foresaw an increase in aid to 600 trucks a day, or more than eight times the December average reported by the UN.
The World Food Programme said on Thursday it had enough food for one million people “waiting outside Gaza or on its way”.
On the Egyptian side of the border, a source in the Egyptian Red Crescent told AFP up to 1,000 trucks are waiting “for their entry into Gaza”. But with airstrikes continuing to pound the territory, where aid groups and the UN have regularly accused Israel of impeding aid flows – which Israeli denies – aid workers were sceptical.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator, Amande Bazerolle told AFP that the promise of hundreds of trucks a day “is not even feasible technically”. “Since Rafah has been destroyed, the infrastructure is not there to be able to cope with that level of logistics,” she said, with bombs audible in the background, reported the news agency.
Aid that does arrive is subject to looting by both armed gangs and desperate civilians. “The Israelis have targeted the police, so there’s no one to protect the shipments” from looting, which Bazerolle said will continue “as long as there’s not enough aid entering”.
After more than a year of the “systematic dismantling of the rule of law” in Gaza, Gavin Kelleher, of the Norwegian Refugee Council called for “the resumption of a Palestinian civilian police force.”
The situation is especially dire in northern Gaza. Bazerolle, who says MSF missions in the area have been targeted by Israel, says the group hopes to send teams to the north “to at least treat patients where they are,” in the absence of hospitals.
According to the World Health Organization, only one hospital, al-Awda, is partially functioning in the north. The WHO’s Rik Peeperkorn said that, in addition to hospital capacity, his agency will focus on “the very basic things” including water, electricity and waste management systems in Gaza.
Still, the displaced will hope to head back – including Mohammed al-Khatib, of Medical Aid for Palestinians – if the truce holds. Many, he said, “will return to find their entire neighbourhoods destroyed” and without food or shelter.
“People aren’t even talking about rebuilding their houses, but just the most basic essential needs,” he continued. “We’re closing one chapter of suffering and opening a new one,” he predicted, before adding: “At least there is some hope of the bloodshed ending.”
Emmanuel Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas
French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Friday that French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages to be freed by Hamas after a ceasefire with Israel.
Macron’s annoncement came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday.
An Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal expected to take effect on Sunday has sparked hope for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, but aid agencies have warned of obstacles from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order.
Announcing the truce, US president Joe Biden said on Wednesday that it would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians”.
The UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors”.
On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.
“Everything has been destroyed. Children are on the streets. You can’t pinpoint just one priority,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator, Amande Bazerolle, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by phone from Gaza.
Speaking from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Mohammed al-Khatib, of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said local aid workers have not stopped for 15 months even though they themselves are displaced. “Everyone is exhausted,” he said.
In the hunger-striken makeshift shelters set up in former schools, bombed-out houses and cemeteries, hundreds of thousands lack even plastic sheeting to protect from winter rains and biting winds, Gavin Kelleher, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP.
Even if the bombs stop, agencies like his have to focus on the basics of emergency response, including bringing in “tarpaulins, rope and fixtures to close gaping holes” in buildings.
“At least until we stop seeing children dying of hypothermia,” he said via text message from Gaza.
By last week, hypothermia had killed at least eight people – four newborns, three infants and one adult – according to a health ministry toll used by the World Health Organization.
Hamas says obstacles to ceasefire deal have been resolved
Hamas said on Friday that obstacles that arose in relation to the terms of the Gaza ceasefire agreement have been resolved, according to a statement issued by the group.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israel pounded several areas of the territory after the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their “freedom … into a tragedy”.
Release of Gaza hostages expected to begin on Sunday, says Netanyahu’s office
The release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.
“Subject to the approval of the cabinet and the government, and the implementation of the agreement, the release of the hostages can proceed according to the planned framework, with the hostages expected to be released as early as Sunday,” the office said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse.
Israel security cabinet begins meeting to vote on Gaza ceasefire deal – report
Israel’s security cabinet began a meeting on Friday to discuss and vote on a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, an official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The security cabinet meeting to discuss and vote on the deal has started,” the Israeli official familiar with the matter said.
Here are some of the latest images of Gaza via the newswires:
Israel to free West bank settlers under detention orders, defence minister Israel Katz says
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has announced a decision to free West Bank settlers held under administrative detention orders, before the expected release on Sunday or Monday of Palestinian security prisoners in a ceasefire deal signed with Hamas in Doha last night, according to the Times of Israel.
The publication reports that Katz said in his statement:
In light of the expected release of terrorists from Judea and Samaria as part of the hostage release deal, I have decided to release the settlers detained in administrative detention and to convey a clear message of strengthening and encouraging the [West Bank] settlements, which are at the forefront of the struggle against Palestinian terrorism and facing growing security challenges.”
