Three more Israeli hostages released in Gaza, in exchange 369 Palestinian prisoners will be freed from Israel

Hamas has freed three Israeli hostages from Gaza and Israel has released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in its custody, the sixth exchange in a fragile month-old ceasefire that almost collapsed earlier this week.

Hamas has freed three Israeli hostages from Gaza and Israel has released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in its custody, the sixth exchange in a fragile month-old ceasefire that almost collapsed earlier this week.

On Saturday morning, Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad deployed about 200 fighters to take part in a choreographed handover ceremony in a square in the southern town of Khan Younis.

The three hostages – the Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, the Israeli-Argentinian Iair Horn and the Israeli-Russian Sasha Troufanov, seized from Nir Oz kibbutz in the 7 October 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war – were forced to read statements from a stage in front of a crowd before they were handed over to the Red Cross.

The stage bore a poster which showed Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound, visible through a hole in the wall of a destroyed building, along with the slogan “No displacement except to Jerusalem,” an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s proposal that Palestinians in Gaza be relocated to other countries.

Saturday’s handover unfolded a lot more smoothly than chaotic past releases, and all three men appeared to be in good health. The gaunt appearance of the last batch of released captives shocked and angered the Israeli public, and raised fears about the wellbeing of the remaining hostages.

In the occupied West Bank administrative capital, Ramallah, onlookers cheered on the arrival of a minibus carrying released prisoners and detainees. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association, 35 people were released to Jerusalem and the West Bank, and another 24 people serving life sentences will be extradited to third countries.

The vast majority of those released on Saturday are from Gaza, detained since the war broke out under emergency Israeli legislation which allows detention without charge or trial. Four of the released prisoners were taken to hospital because of serious health conditions, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

Israeli officials appeared to try to match Hamas’s theatrics on Saturday: at least some of the freed Palestinians were wearing shirts featuring the Star of David and Arabic slogans reading: “We’ll never forgive, we’ll never forget.”

Saturday’s exchange marks another successful step in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on 19 January. However, the future of the agreement is still uncertain: under the terms of the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US, negotiations for a second phase had been due to start on 3 February.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sent negotiators to Doha days later, but the delegation was not mandated to discuss phase two, which is meant to lay out steps towards ending the war.

On Monday, the truce looked like it was in danger of collapsing after Donald Trump’s announcement that the US would “take over” the Gaza Strip, and its 2.3m population would be forcibly resettled in Egypt and Jordan.

Hamas said it would suspend this weekend’s scheduled release of three more hostages unless alleged Israeli violations, including the continued killing of Palestinians in Gaza, were addressed.

Released hostage Or Levy embraces a family member at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel.

In response, Israel threatened to resume the war, and Donald Trump inflamed the crisis by demanding the group release all of the 76 remaining hostages this weekend.

By Friday, mediators appeared to have salvaged the deal, and Islamic Jihad said it would release three men as planned. Talks on implementing the second stage of the ceasefire are set to begin next week.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, whose country is Israel’s top backer and one of the truce mediators, is due to arrive in Israel late on Saturday to discuss the truce’s future and Trump’s depopulation plan with Israeli officials.

Arab leaders have flatly rejected Trump’s proposal, which international law experts say amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Saudi Arabia is hosting delegations from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday for a summit on the issue, and the Arab League will convene to discuss alternatives on 27 February.