.png)
4 hours ago
2
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Today’s expected release of another three Israeli hostages comes against the backdrop of uncertainty over the Israel-Hamas ceasefire after US president Donald Trump’s surprise announcement this week that he envisions the US taking over Gaza, moving Palestinians to other countries, and developing the territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
“We’re in no rush on it,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday, referring to his Gaza plan.
Still, as Reuters reports, it underlined the fragility of the deal reached last month with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the US.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed Trump’s vision for Gaza as a “remarkable” plan, but it was immediately rejected by Arab countries, Palestinian groups including Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and many Gazans, who said they would rebuild their homes and restaurants themselves.
However, Israeli leaders have repeated the line that Gazans who wish should be able to leave and defence minister Israel Katz ordered the army on Thursday to prepare a plan to allow for the departure of Gaza residents who wanted to go.
Photograph: Lenin Nolly/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
The Israel Defence Forces expects Hamas to release the three hostages starting around 10am local time Saturday – about an hour and a half away – from one location in central Gaza, the Times of Israel has quoted an Israeli defence official as saying.
Hamas has been setting up a stage for the handover to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah.
The Times reports all three hostages will be escorted out of Gaza by IDF troops to an army facility near Re’im, where they will undergo an initial physical and mental check-up and meet their families.
Afterwards, they will be taken to Ichilov and Sheba hospitals in central Israel.
Three Israelis held hostage in Gaza for 16 months are set to be released by Hamas on Saturday as part of the fragile ceasefire agreement. Agence France-Presse has this rundown on what’s known about the three men.
Eli Sharabi, 52
Sharabi, who turns 53 this month, was at his home in kibbutz Beeri with his British-born wife and their two teenage daughters when Hamas stormed it on 7 October 2023.
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.
He was taken to Gaza along with his brother Yossi. The Israeli military said early last year that Yossi was killed and his body was in the hands of Hamas in Gaza.
Ohad Ben Ami, 56
Ben Ami was abducted with his wife, Raz Ben Ami, from their home in kibbutz Beeri.
She was released during the one-week truce in November 2023.
Images have circulated on social media showing him being seized in a T-shirt and underwear.
Ben Ami, who has dual Israeli and German citizenship and turned 56 in captivity, is the accountant for his kibbutz and a keen bike rider.
Or Levy, 34
Levy and his wife, Einav Levy, went to the Nova music festival, leaving their two-year-old son Almog with his grandparents.
The usually inseparable couple, who met in high school, tried to hide from the Hamas attackers along Route 232, the only path away from the festival.
“When gunfire erupted shortly after their arrival, they sought refuge in a concrete safe room, later known as ‘the death bunker’,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
There, Einav was murdered, and Or was taken captive.
These images have come in of Hamas militants standing guard in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, this morning before the expected release of three Israeli hostages.
Hamas has begun setting up a stage in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, where the hostage release is expected to take place, according to a Times of Israel report about 20 minutes ago.
It went on:
The location is a new one, with the terror group shifting sites where it conducts the releases.
The stage has a a sign of a fist with a Palestinian flag, and the words “total victory” written in Hebrew at the bottom over a picture of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has vowed the war will not end until Israel achieves “total victory.”
White pickup trucks with machine guns mounted on the back flank the stage and masked and armed Hamas gunmen can be seen forming a cordon surrounding the site.
It is not immediately clear if there will be one or more sites where the three hostages, Ohad Ben Ami, 56, Eli Sharabi, 52, and Or Levy, 34, will be freed.
Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the latest news from the Middle East, with the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners expected to take place on Saturday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas has named the three to be released in the fifth exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel as civilians Eli Sharabi, Ohad ben Ami and Or Levy.
Israel is set to release 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday to fulfil its side of the agreement, according to the Hamas-linked prisoners’ office in Gaza.
The Gaza ceasefire deal remains fragile. The release of the hostages’ names was delayed by several hours after Hamas accused Israel of delaying the delivery of aid and other equipment in breach of the terms of the ceasefire. Israel dismissed the claims as “completely unfounded”, saying it had allowed thousands of trucks carrying food, aid and shelters into Gaza.
It’s nearly 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. In other developments:
-
The United States has approved the sale of more than $7.4bn in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the proposed sale – which still technically requires the approval of Congress – “improves Israel’s capability to meet current and future threats, strengthen its homeland defense, and serves as a deterrent to regional threats”.
-
Global aid agency the Norwegian Refugee Council said humanitarian efforts in Gaza remained in an “emergency crisis setting”. Communications adviser Shaina Low said more aid had been able to enter the territory since the ceasefire but that there were still “delays in screening certain types of material”.
-
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in the US and has delivered a joint press conference with US house speaker Mike Johnson. Netanyahu praised President Trump for lifting bans on the provision of certain weapons that were in place under the Biden administration and said there was no “future for peace” in his region if Hamas remained there
-
The international criminal court (ICC) condemned Trump’s executive order announcing sanctions against the court, accusing the US president of trying to “harm its independent and impartial judicial” work. “The court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” it said.
-
The UK has “no plans” to impose similar sanctions and will “support the independence of the ICC”, a spokesperson for prime minister Keir Starmer said. The UK and the US “over a number of administrations have taken a different view on the ICC”, they added
-
France, Germany and the Netherlands all spoke out against the sanctions. Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof said that, as the host of the court, the Netherlands had a “responsibility to guarantee the unhindered functioning of the criminal court at all times. We will keep doing that.”
-
The UN also called on Trump to criticised the sanctions. “We deeply regret the individual sanctions announced yesterday against court personnel, and call for this measure to be reversed,” human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. Trump’s order said the court had “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel” and vowed to “impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions”.
