Three more Israeli hostages, 110 Palestinian prisoners to be released

JERUSALEM: Israeli captives Gadi Moses, Arbel Yehud and Agam Berger are set to be released from Gaza on Thursday (Jan 30) as part of the third hostage-prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.

Palestinian militants are also set to free five Thai citizens being held hostage, but their identities are still unknown.

According to Israel, Yehud, as a woman and a civilian, should have been released last Saturday in the second exchange under the ceasefire deal that recently went into effect in the Gaza Strip.

When she did not appear, the Israeli government accused Hamas of violating the agreement, and in retaliation prevented hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning to the north of Gaza. On Monday, following Hamas's pledge to release Yehud and the other hostages this week, the block was lifted.

110 PALESTINIAN PRISONERS TO BE RELEASED

A Palestinian prisoners advocacy group said Israeli authorities would release 110 prisoners, including 30 minors, on Thursday as part of an exchange under a Gaza ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas.

"Tomorrow, 110 Palestinian prisoners are to be released," the Palestinian Prisoners' Club said in a statement, referring to the third exchange of hostages and prisoners under the truce, which began on January 19.

The group said the prisoners were expected to arrive in the "Radana area of Ramallah at around noon". 

Publishing the list of the prisoners, the group said 30 were under the age of 18, 32 had been sentenced to life imprisonment, and 48 others were serving jail terms of varying lengths.

The group also said that 20 of the prisoners set to be released would be sent into exile.

In the previous two swaps, seven Israeli hostages were freed by militants in exchange for 290 prisoners - almost all Palestinians, except for one Jordanian.

MORE ON THREE ISRAELIS TO BE RELEASED 

The three Israelis being released on Thursday include Gadi Moses, a farmer, who lost his wife Efrat Katz, 69, in Hamas's Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Other members of his German-Israeli family who were abducted have since been released. 

Moses, who turned 80 in captivity, had been trying to negotiate with the attackers to save his family when he was also taken hostage. 

He appeared in a video released in December 2023 by the militant group Islamic Jihad alongside another hostage, Elad Katzir, 47, who has since been killed.

There is also Arbel Yehud, who turned 29 in captivity, who family members describe as a gentle young woman with a magnetic smile.

She was captured at the same time as her boyfriend Ariel Cunio, 26. Her brother Dolev, 35, was killed on October 7, 2023. All three lived in the Nir Oz kibbutz.

Yehud worked in the kibbutz's education system before becoming a guide at the nearby GrooveTech centre dedicated to technology and space.

Yehud was hiding in the safe room at the home of David Cunio, Ariel's brother. To force them out, the attackers set fire to the house.

Two male members of the family, Ariel and his brother David, are still in captivity.

Finally, there is Agam Berger, now 20, who was abducted along with four other soldiers while doing her military service along the border with Gaza.

In a video published on the social network Telegram, she was seen being taken into a car in her pyjamas.

Agam Goldstein-Almog, a hostage freed during a week-long truce in November 2023, told her family that Berger, a practising Jew, respected the Sabbath during her detention, refusing on Saturdays to cook and clean for her captors. 

Berger, who has a twin sister, has played the violin since childhood and comes from Holon, a Tel Aviv suburb.

A fourth swap planned for Saturday will see three Israeli men released, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.