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LAST UPDATE | 8 Feb
HAMAS HAS HANDED over three Israeli hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza in exchange for 183 Palestinians held by Israel in the fifth exchange of a fragile Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Both Israel and Hamas have decried the condition of those who were freed.
The three freed hostages have since arrived in Israel. They are Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami.
“Three returning hostages have just been transferred to IDF (military) and ISA (domestic security agency) forces in the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement.
A bus carrying a group of Palestinians freed by Israel has arrived in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, an AFP journalist said. The Israeli prison service has since confirmed 183 people were released.
The freed people stepped off the bus one by one to a cheering crowd who had gathered since the morning.
A group representing the families of Israeli hostages has decried the state the freed captives were in when they appeared on TV while seven freed Palestinians have been taken to hospital.
A bus carrying Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails under the Gaza ceasefire deal has arrived in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where they were greeted by a jubilant crowd and Palestinian security personnel. pic.twitter.com/fPgp1Uv3Ym
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 8, 2025
“The disturbing images from the release of Ohad, Eli, and Or serve as yet another stark and painful evidence that leaves no room for doubt – there is no time to waste for the hostages! We must get them all out, down to the very last hostage. Now!” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
The Red Crescent has confirmed that all the freed Palestinians are in need of medical attention while seven have been hospitalised.
“All the prisoners who were released today are in need of medical care, treatment, and examinations as a result of the brutality they were subjected to during the past months. There are seven who were transferred to the hospital,” said Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club NGO.
Hamas has also released a statement on the condition of the freed Palestinians.
“The fact that seven prisoners were transferred to hospitals immediately after their release… reflects the systematic assaults and mistreatment of our prisoners by the Israeli prison authorities,” Hamas said in a statement, adding that it was “part of the policy of the extremist Israeli government, which pursues the slow killing of prisoners inside the prisons”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also criticised the condition of the three people freed by Hamas.
“The shocking images that we have seen today will not go unaddressed,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
President Isaac Herzog denounced the treatment of Israeli hostages as a “crime against humanity”.
Today’s swap comes after President Donald Trump proposed the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip and for the United States to take over the Palestinian territory – a plan that has sparked global uproar and been rejected by Hamas. It was also walked back by some White House officials.
Dozens of armed Hamas fighters formed a cordon around an open area in the city of Deir el-Balah early this morning, apparently to control crowds eager to watch the hostage release.
As with past exchanges, a stage was erected for the occasion, festooned with a banner bearing images of destroyed Israeli armoured vehicles and a dejected-looking Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sharabi, 52, was at his home in kibbutz Beeri with his British-born wife and their two daughters when Hamas stormed it.
The armed men shot their dog, before locking the family in their safe room and setting it on fire. The bodies of his wife and two daughters were later identified.
Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival, where gunmen murdered his wife. Ben Ami, who has dual Israeli-German citizenship, turned 56 in captivity.
Released hostage Or Levy reunites with his parents and brother at an army facility near the Gaza border after 491 days in Hamas captivity. pic.twitter.com/WHd5Q6mRiM
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) February 8, 2025
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum urged the government on Friday to stick with the Gaza truce, even as Trump’s comments sparked backlash across the Middle East and beyond.
“An entire nation demands to see the hostages return home,” the Israeli campaign group said in a statement.
“Now is the time to ensure the agreement is completed — until the very last one,” it added.
Israel and Hamas have now completed five swaps under the first stage of the ceasefire agreement.
Palestinian militants, led by Hamas, have so far freed 18 hostages in exchange for around 600 mostly Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.
The ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 33 hostages during the first 42-day phase of the agreement.
Negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks.
Netanyahu’s office said that after today’s swap, an Israeli delegation will head to Doha for further negotiations on the ceasefire.
The second phase aims to secure the release of more hostages and pave the way for a permanent end to the war, which began with Hamas’s October 7 attack.
With reporting from AFP
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