Hamas names next hostages to be released

KATHMANDU: Hamas has released the names of the next hostages to be freed on Saturday in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

They are male civilians Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy.

So far, 18 hostages have been freed since the ceasefire began on 19 January with Israel in return releasing 383 prisoners. Hamas says another 183 are to be returned on Saturday.

Some 33 hostages and 1,900 prisoners are due to be freed by the end of the first stage of the ceasefire in three weeks’ time. Israel says eight of the 33 are dead.

Hamas seized 251 hostages and killed about 1,200 people when it attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, triggering the war.

At least 47,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. About two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israel’s attacks, the UN says.

Eli Sharabi, 52, was taken from Kibbutz Beeri with his brother, Yossi, whose death has since been confirmed. Eli’s British-born wife, Lianne, and two daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered in the attack.

Mr Sharabi’s brother-in-law, Stephen Brisley, from Wales, said his safe return “has always been that one crumb of comfort”.

“Eli coming home alive would be perhaps the greatest memorial to Lianne and the girls and we’re so close to achieving that now,” he told the BBC.

Ohad Ben Ami, 56, was also taken from Kibbutz Beeri, along with his wife, Raz. She was later released by Hamas.

Mr Ben Ami, an accountant, is “known for his good judgment and sense of humour”, according to the Hostages Families Forum.

Or Levy, 34, a computer programmer from Rishon LeZion, a city south of Tel Aviv, fled the Nova festival with his wife Eynav, when gunmen attacked the event.

Mr Levy was taken hostage and Eynav’s body was found in a bomb shelter where the couple had been hiding.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed authorities had received the list of abductees scheduled for release on Saturday, and their families had been informed.

Earlier on Friday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters had welcomed “news about the expected release” of the three hostages.

“We will not give up or stop at any stage until all hostages return home under the current agreement – down to the very last one – the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial,” the statement said.

Hours before they released the hostage names, Hamas accused Israel of failing to abide by its commitment to boost the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal.

The head of Hamas’s media office in Gaza, Salama Marouf, told a news conference in Gaza City: “The humanitarian situation remains catastrophic due to Israeli obstruction”.

He said only 8,500 out of an expected 12,000 aid lorries had entered Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect, and medical equipment and shelter supplies had been deliberately delayed, according to media reports.

The allegation contradicts UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who on Thursday said 10,000 lorries with food, medicine and tents had crossed into Gaza since the start of the ceasefire in what he called “a massive surge”.

Meanwhile, Yarden Bibas, 34, an Israeli hostage who was freed on Saturday, made a direct plea to Netanyahu to bring back his wife and children, who are still in captivity.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu, I’m now addressing you with my own words… bring my family back, bring my friends back, bring everyone home,” Mr Bibas said in his first public statement since his release.

Hamas claimed in November 2023 that Mr Bibas’s wife, Shiri, and two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, had been killed in an Israeli air strike, without providing evidence. Israel has not confirmed the report.

In a separate development in central Gaza on Friday, hundreds of people – including armed Hamas fighters – attended a funeral held for senior Hamas military commander Marwan Issa.

Issa is seen as one of the masterminds of Hamas’s 7 October attack. The Israeli military had said he was killed in an air strike last March, but his death was only confirmed by Hamas last week.

Gaza has been rocked by US President Donald Trump’s post-war plan for the territory announced earlier this week. Trump called for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip, resettle its Palestinian population and turn the territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

His idea was strongly condemned by Arab countries and the UN.

-BBC