A decision taken after significant efforts by foreign mediators. Hostage Arbel Yehoud, whose release Israel demanded this Saturday, should return home within the week in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners, two Palestinian sources indicated this Sunday. Alongside him, five other Israeli hostages will be released in the same week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed.
An official from Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas in Gaza, assured during the day on Sunday that Arbel Yehoud “would be released before the next exchange agreement”, underlining “intensive efforts by Qatari and Egyptian mediators”. Another source close to the matter had indicated, also on condition of anonymity, that “the crisis had been resolved”.
Sunday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed this information, specifying that in total, six Israeli hostages would be released within the week. “Following intensive and determined negotiations (…), Israel received from Hamas a list with the situation of all the hostages” (alive or dead) releasable during the first phase of the agreement, his office said in a statement. . Israel will authorize “the passage of Gazans to the north” from Monday morning, he said.
Three hostages will therefore be released on Thursday: Arbel Yehoud, soldier Agam Berger, and another person who has not yet been named. Three other hostages will be released on Saturday, according to the Israeli Prime Minister's office.
Seven hostages already released
The truce agreement, which came into force last Sunday, provides for the release during the first six weeks of 33 hostages – women as well as men aged over 50 or in poor physical condition – in exchange for the release of 1,900 Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons.
-Seven young women have already been released, including four soldiers on Saturday, while Arbel Yehoud, 29, kidnapped with her companion from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz (south), is still held captive in Gaza.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli Prime Minister's office accused the Palestinian Islamist movement of two violations of the agreement. He had argued that Arbel Yehoud, a civilian hostage, had “not been released” on Saturday even though she was considered a priority, and that the “status list” of the hostages – dead or alive – had “not been submissive” as he demanded.
Israel had decided in return to prevent the return of tens of thousands of displaced people to the north of the Gaza Strip devastated by the war, as long as these questions were not resolved. Hamas itself accused Israel of being responsible for the blockade.
