What we know about the next release of Israeli hostages scheduled for Saturday

Hamas will publish the list of four hostages on Friday, January 24, which must be released the next day, the second series of liberation under the truce agreement with Israel, a senior Palestinian Islamist movement told AFP. “Today, Hamas will hand over the names of the four prisoners as part of the second phase of the exchange” Israeli hostages against Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, said Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau based in Doha, in a telephone interview.

The first phase of the truce, which is due to last six weeks and started last Sunday, is supposed to allow the release of 33 hostages retained in Gaza against a much larger number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Three young women have already been released. There will therefore be 26 released hostages on Saturday evening on this first phase.

Read too
“I hope it will be habitable”: with the truce, the inhabitants of Gaza discover the extent of the destruction

91 hostages still in Gaza

According to the agreement, immediately after the release of these four new hostages, “The people displaced in the south of the Gaza Strip will begin to return north”said the Palestinian movement manager: “An Egypto-Qatari committee will oversee the implementation of the field agreement”.

A Palestinian source close to Hamas also described a process identical to that of last Sunday, as well as that of the hostages released during the previous truce, at the end of November 2023. “The Al-Qassam brigades (Hamas armed branch, editor’s note) and other factions of the resistance will release the four prisoners on Saturday, before the scheduled time” To entrust them to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), added this source.

Out of 251 people kidnapped that day, 91 are still hostages in Gaza, 34 of which died according to the army. Others have been announced dead by Hamas but without Israeli confirmation or evidence.