Middle East crisis live: Hamas releases two hostages with third expected | Israel-Gaza war

The Israeli military said the two freed hostages had now crossed into Israeli territory after they were released by Hamas on Saturday.

“A short while ago, the returning civilian hostages, Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas, crossed the border into Israeli territory” accompanied by Israeli forces, AFP quoted the military as saying in a statement.

Two male civilian hostages released – one more due shortly

Peter Beaumont

The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont is reporting on these latest hostage releases.

Three more Israelis – all male civilian hostages – were being released on Saturday to Israel as part of the continuing ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza.

Hamas handed the first two hostages over to the Red Cross in the strip’s south on Saturday morning shortly before they were received by the Israeli military a short while later.

In return Palestinian authorities say Israel has agreed to release dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, in the fourth round of exchanges during the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

The first two to be released, including Yarden Bibas, the father of a young family and whose wife and children have become poignant symbols of the hostage crisis, remain unaccounted for amid “grave concerns” for their wellbeing.

Bibas, 35, and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon, 54, were transferred to the Red Cross in what appeared to be a more orderly handover than the chaotic scenes that accompanied a previous release this week, when released Israelis were jostled by a noisy crush.

As they were released a second Red Cross convoy was en route to pick up Israel-American Keith Siegel from a second location.

Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis – it’s 8.40am in Tel Aviv and Gaza City and here’s a snapshot of the latest news.

Hamas is expected to hand over three Israelis on Saturday in latest exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners under the current ceasefire.

The three Israelis include Yarden Bibas, the 35-year-old father of the two youngest hostages – baby Kfir, aged nine months old when he was kidnapped by Hamas-led gunmen on 7 October 2023, and Ariel, then aged four.

The Palestinian militant group said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother Shiri, who was taken at the same time, were killed in an Israeli airstrike. There has been no word on them since, Reuters reports.

US-Israeli dual national Keith Siegel, 65, and French-Israeli dual national Ofer Kalderon, 54, would also be part of the exchange for 182 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, Hamas said.

Saturday is also expected to see the first Palestinians travelling from Gaza to Egypt through the newly reopened Rafah border crossing, according to Reuters. It will be opened initially for 50 injured militants and 50 wounded civilians, along with the people escorting them, with a further 100 people probably allowed through on humanitarian grounds, according to Reuters.

In other developments:

• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be in Washington on Tuesday for a working meeting with US president Donald Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday. Trump and Netanyahu are expected to meet twice in Washington that day, once for a work meeting and then for an informal dinner with their spouses, US news site Axios reported, citing an unidentified source.

• Hundreds of people gathered on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags to protest against Trump’s suggestion that the people of Gaza should be moved into Egypt and Jordan. The US president has repeated the proposal, saying when asked how he would pressure Egypt and Jordan to take so many people: “We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it.”

• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said its humanitarian work across the occupied territories and Gaza was still ongoing on Friday despite an Israeli ban that took effect a day before and what it described as hostility towards its staff. “We continue to provide services,” Juliette Touma, Unrwa’s director of communications, said in Geneva. “In Gaza, Unrwa continues to be the backbone of the international humanitarian response.”

• Britain, France and Germany reiterated their “grave concern” about the Israeli ban on (Unrwa), saying in a joint statement: “We urge the government of Israel to work with international partners, including the UN, to ensure continuity of operations.”

• The health needs in Gaza are “immense” and there is “large-scale devastation of the health system”, the World Health Organisation has said.

• The European Union has restarted its civilian mission at the Rafah border crossing, with the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, saying the mission would “support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care”.

• Fifteen of the 33 hostages due for release in the first stage of the ceasefire have so far been released in exchange for 400 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Negotiations are due to start by Tuesday on agreements for the release of more than 60 remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in a second phase of the deal.

• UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken by phone with Emily Damari, a freed British-Israeli hostage who was released on 19 January after spending 471 days in captivity.