Gaza ceasefire: Hamas says to free 3 hostages this weekend

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said it will release on Saturday three more Israeli hostages held in the devastated Gaza Strip since it led a terrorist attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Hamas-led attack killed 1,200 in Israel, with some 250 more taken hostage. Israel responded with massive military operations in Gaza, which killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to figures from authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, which the United Nations considers reliable.

Relentless fighting in Gaza continued for 15 months before a ceasefire on January 19 that went hand in hand with the gradual release of 33 of the hostages.

However, earlier this week, Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by Israel, Germany, the US and other countries, said it would indefinitely stop releasing hostages, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire by blocking aid from entering Gaza. Israel responded with threats to resume the fighting.

Hamas's decision to reverse course follows intense mediation efforts by Egypt and Qatar, two countries that helped broker the ceasefire agreement.

What do we know about the hostages set to be released?

On Friday, Hamas's armed wing confirmed the names of the three hostages set to be released on Saturday.

Later, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had received the names of the hostages due to be released. The list consists of Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov, US-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen and Israeli-Argentine Iair Horn. All three men were kidnapped from the same Nir Oz Kibbutz during the 2023 Hamas-led attacks.

The Hostages Families Forum welcomed the "joyous news" of the three men's scheduled release. 

Hamas said Israel was set to release 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Last weekend's hostage release was widely criticized in Israel, as the released hostages were forced to speak in a Hamas-organized handover ceremony. Meanwhile, released US-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel described his 484 days of captivity in a video message.

"I am a survivor. I was held for 484 days in unimaginable conditions. Every single day felt like it could be my last," said Siegel, who was released two weeks ago. "I was starved and I was tortured, both physically and emotionally."

Saudi Arabia to host summit on Trump's Gaza plan

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is preparing to host a summit for Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to discuss US President Donald Trump's controversial plan to take over Gaza to redevelop it and permanently resettle its some two million Palestinian residents to neighboring countries.

The French AFP news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the summit is scheduled for February 20, ahead of a February 27 Arab League meeting in Cairo.

Another unnamed source told AFP that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas will attend the Saudi summit.

Trump's Gaza plan was largely rejected, especially by Arab countries, including the four scheduled to take part in the summit. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized it as "ethnic cleansing," a common description by various other critics.

Trump has particularly put pressure on neighbors Egypt and Jordan to take in the displaced Palestinians, threatening to withhold much-needed US aid if they refuse. Cairo has instead been hard at work to present a Gaza reconstruction plan that would unfold while Palestinians remain in the enclave.

Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have  welcomed Trump's controversial plan, with the prime minister even suggesting that Saudi Arabia take in some of the displaced Palestinians. Some Israeli media later described Netanyahu's statements as a joke.

Any attempts to resettle Palestinians outside of the Palestinian territories revive memories of the "Nakba" (Arabic for "catastrophe"), which is still very much present among Palestinians and Arabs. It refers to the forced displacement or fleeing of some 700,000 Palestinians before and during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 that followed Israel's establishment.

rmt/wd (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)