The Israeli government and Hamas-led militants released 175 prisoners and three hostages, respectively, on Saturday, marking the fourth exchange since last month’s cease-fire deal came into force, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The swap involved the liberation of three Israeli civilians from Gaza in return for three busloads of Palestinians being sent back to the Strip and the West Bank, provoking impassioned celebrations in the streets of Tel Aviv, Gaza City and Ramallah.
The Israelis freed were Ofer Calderon, 54; Yarden Bibas, 35; and Keith Siegel, 65, who also holds U.S. citizenship.
“Our thoughts are now with” the freed hostages “and all of our abductees,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on wrote on X, promising to secure the release of the several dozen remaining hostages, taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 Israelis.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s health ministry updated the death toll to nearly 47,500, of which one-third are children, according to the United Nations. The U.N. estimates another half-million children have been displaced since the war began.
As part of the cease-fire agreement, Israel and Egypt also opened the Rafah border crossing on Saturday, for the first time in months. Scores of Palestinian patients were able to access medical treatment, including 30 children with cancer.
In Cairo, the Arab nations of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement hailing the temporary truce and praising “the appreciated role of the United States in achieving this agreement.”
They then outlined necessary next steps, among them a two-state solution that allows Palestinians to remain in Gaza during its reconstruction; the need for an unobstructed flow of humanitarian aid into the Strip; and the continued operation in the area of the U.N. agency for Palestinian aid (UNRWA).
These will be difficult asks. Israel banned the UNRWA from Gaza this week and Prime Minister Netanyahu is traveling to Washington on Tuesday to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently advocated to “clean out” Gaza and is insisting Arab nations agree to take in its two million inhabitants.
France, Germany, Spain and others have strongly rejected the idea as a violation of international law, while many critics have labelled it ethnic cleansing.
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