Tel Aviv — American-Israeli twin nationwide Keith Siegel was amongst three hostages launched by Hamas militants within the war-torn Gaza Strip on Saturday, greater than 15 months after they had been taken captive by the group throughout its Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist assault. Siegel was freed in Gaza Metropolis about two hours after Israelis Yarden Bibas and Ofer Calderon had been launched within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis.
The Israeli navy confirmed that every one three hostages had been in its care and again in Israel after first being handed over to Purple Cross personnel in Gaza. Siegel appeared to have misplaced weight throughout his captivity, however he waved and smiled as Hamas militants ready handy him over to Purple Cross employees. In an announcement, the Israel Protection Forces mentioned the three freed males can be reunited with members of the family and brought for medical checks and care at hospitals in Israel.
Each handovers had been carried out shortly Saturday and with out the chaos seen throughout the earlier, third prisoner trade, which angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who delayed the corresponding Israeli launch of Palestinian prisoners by a number of hours.
Dawoud Abu Alkas/REUTERS
Israel was anticipated to free about 90 extra Palestinians from its prisons on Saturday in trade for the discharge of the three hostages, as stipulated within the ceasefire settlement that took impact on January 19.
Keith Siegel is 1st American freed throughout new ceasefire
Initially from North Carolina, Siegel moved to Israel 4 many years in the past. He was amongst seven Americans taken as hostages into Gaza throughout Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 assault, which noticed militants kill round 1,200 folks in southern Israel and take 251 others captive.
Israel’s navy assault on Hamas in response has killed greater than 47,400 folks, based on the Palestinian territory’s Hamas-run Ministry of Well being, left complete neighborhoods leveled and triggered a humanitarian disaster by displacing just about your entire enclave’s inhabitants and destroying its infrastructure.
It’s believed that at the least two of the six American hostages nonetheless held in Gaza are alive — Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and Edan Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey. 4 different Individuals are believed to have been killed in captivity.
Siegel’s spouse Aviva was additionally taken hostage by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, however was launched in an earlier hostage and prisoner swap in November 2023.
Chatting with CBS Information a few 12 months after her launch, Aviva Siegel mentioned there have been moments as Hamas militants compelled her and her husband by tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip that they felt “certain we had been going to die.”
Yarden Bibas, 35, is the husband of Shiri Bibas, who was taken from their kibbutz along with her two younger kids Ariel and Kfir throughout the terrorist assault. Hamas claimed simply weeks after the assault that Shiri and her two kids had been killed in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.
In a TV interview a few 12 months later, then-Israeli authorities minister Benny Gantz indicated that officers knew what had occurred to the Bibas household, however mentioned he couldn’t present particulars. The truth that, underneath the phrases of the ceasefire deal, Hamas has launched ladies and kids earlier than male hostages, prompt the remainder of Yarden Bibas’ household was certainly useless.
Reuters TV/REUTERS
Ofer Calderon, 54, was amongst 5 members of his household seized by Hamas militants from their kibbutz close to the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023. His two kids had been launched throughout the ceasefire in November of that 12 months, however two of his cousins had been killed.
Rafah crossing into Egypt reopened
A gaggle of fifty sick and wounded Palestinian kids started crossing by Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt for remedy on Saturday, the Related Press reported. It marked the primary opening of the border since Israel captured Gaza almost 9 months in the past.
Israel agreed to reopen the crossing after Hamas launched the final dwelling feminine hostages in Gaza.
Hani Alshaer/Anadolu through Getty Pictures
Egyptian tv confirmed a Palestinian Purple Cross ambulance pulling as much as the crossing gate, and a number of other kids had been introduced out on stretchers and transferred to ambulances on the Egyptian facet, the AP reported. Gaza’s Well being Ministry mentioned round 60 members of the family had been accompanying the youngsters.
Rafah is Gaza’s solely crossing that doesn’t enter into Israel. It was closed by Israeli forces in early Could after it was seized throughout an offensive on the southern metropolis. Egypt shut down its facet of the crossing in protest.
BASHAR TALEB/AFP through Getty Pictures
Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza’s Well being Ministry, informed the AP that greater than 6,000 sufferers had been able to be evacuated overseas and greater than 12,000 sufferers urgently wanted remedy. He mentioned the small numbers set to be evacuated is not going to cowl the necessity, “and we hope the quantity will improve.”
What has the ceasefire achieved and what comes subsequent?
Hamas is predicted to free a complete of 33 Israeli hostages throughout the first, six-week part of the ceasefire and hostage launch deal, which took impact on January 19. After the discharge on Saturday, 18 have been freed to date. With every launch of Israeli hostages, scores of Palestinians have been free of Israeli prisons, with roughly 30 being let out for each hostage returned to Israel alive.
Part one of many deal was to see all Israeli ladies, kids and male hostages over the age of fifty launched in trade for lots of of Palestinian prisoners, along with a dramatically elevated circulation of humanitarian help into Gaza and the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from some areas of the territory.
On the sixteenth day of the ceasefire, which might be Monday, negotiations to determine the steps for the second part are supposed to start, based on a draft of the settlement shared with CBS Information by a senior Hamas official.
There have been just a few moments the place it appeared the delicate settlement may disintegrate, together with when hostage Arbel Yehoud was not launched as Israel mentioned she ought to have been in one of many first exchanges. Fast negotiations led to a decision of the dispute, and Yehoud was amongst these freed by militants in Gaza within the third trade on Thursday.
“Any deal that takes two or three months to finish a conflict is a foul deal, as a result of it could actually go off the rails at any level, and at any level both one of many sides can accuse the opposite of breaching,” Israeli analyst and former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin informed CBS Information on Friday.
“We have already had mutual accusations of breach. Proper now, either side are taken with at the least bringing this ahead to the tip of the 42 days” of part one, Baskin mentioned.
Baskin, who has in depth expertise negotiating with Hamas, cautioned that “you could not have the 2 events additional aside” forward of the anticipated negotiations over the second part of the deal.
“What we hear from the Israeli facet is that they won’t finish the conflict or withdraw from Gaza, and what we hear from Hamas is that there is no such thing as a deal except it ends the conflict and brings about an Israeli withdrawal,” he mentioned.
However Baskin added that the brand new Trump administration within the U.S. would seemingly play an integral position in figuring out how the negotiations truly go.
“I believe it is all on the shoulders of Trump,” Baskin informed CBS Information. “If Trump is set that it will happen, Netanyahu can not go towards him. Netanyahu might attempt to create some type of provocation, main Hamas to breach the ceasefire, during which case Israel will say to the Individuals, ‘They breached it and now we have now to return to conflict.’ If Trump says sure, then that is the tip. If Trump says ‘no, you possibly can’t return to conflict,’ then we are going to transfer into part two.”
