Hamas has started to release the six Israeli hostages from Gaza in the final exchange of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal’s first phase. NBC’s Hala Gorani reports for Saturday TODAY.
The seventh, final hostage-prisoner exchange of the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal is underway. Two hostages have been transferred to Israeli custody, and another three were exchanged in Nuseirat.Israel is scheduled to release about 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees — the largest group since the start of the ceasefire — and will include 151 prisoners with life or high sentences, and 445 detainees taken from Gaza since Oct. 7.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said these prisoners were released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange, but were re-arrested in 2014 during a cross-border war between Israel and Hamas. The pair were released in Nuseirat by Hamas earlier today alongside Omer Wenkert. They were taken captive during the Nova music festival on Oct 7. 2023.A sixth hostage has been transferred Red Cross custody, the IDF said, and is on his way to Israeli military forces in the Gaza strip.
“We confirm our readiness to move to the second phase of the agreement, and our willingness to complete a comprehensive exchange process, which will achieve a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of the occupation,” Hamas said in a statement, warning Israel not to evade the agreement. In June 2022, Hamas released a video of Al-Sayed showing him lying on a cot with an oxygen mask and warning that he was ill.The two returning hostages released earlier today, Avera Mengistu and Tal Shoham, are each aboard separate helicopters with their families and on their way to hospital, according to the IDF.Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, and Omer Wenkert, who were each taken captive during the Nova music festival on Oct 7. 2023, have appeared on stage to the sound of cheers from the crowd.
During a telephone interview with Fox News radio, Trump said he was surprised that the two countries had not wanted to adopt his plan, despite the U.S. giving them"billions of dollars" a year, but said he was not going to force his idea on the region. Mengistu, a Jewish Israeli of Ethiopian descent, was kidnapped while crossing the border into Gaza in 2015.
Two white cars appear similar to the vehicles that have carried returning hostages to previous releases. As previously, the cars were also accompanied to the square by a truck carrying a number of fighters holding guns.Friends and supporters of Omer Shem Tov have gathered at his high school today in Herziliya to celebrate his impending release from captivity.
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