Hamas launches three Israeli men in the last exchange of hostages

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Hamas released three Israeli men from the captivity in Gaza on Saturday in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners, since a high increasingly fragile fire remained in his third week.

The Israelis were delivered to the International Committee of the Red Cross in a ceremony elaborate in Deir Al-Balah, a relatively not damaged section of the Gaza Strip.

They had been taken as hostages from their homes and a music festival during the assault of the Palestinian militant group as of October 723, 2023 in which some 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli officials.

Ohad Ben Ami, 56, or Levy, 34, and Eli Sharabi, 52 seemed pale and thin when Hamas paraded them on stage with their strongly armed combatants.

“The shocking images we have seen today will not be addressed,” said Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, referring to his physical condition, which was remarkably worse than those thrown into previous swaps.

Israel intends to raise the issue of the health of hostages with the mediators of Alto El Fuego (Qatar, Egypt and the United States, and “measures will be taken,” said a senior Israeli official.

Shortly after, Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners as required under the terms of the fire. Some seemed emaciated in television images broadcast in the Arab media, and seven were taken to the hospital to be treated by unpredied injuries, according to the Palestinian red crescent.

“All prisoners who were released today need medical attention, treatment and exams as a result of the brutality to which they were subjected in recent months,” said the Palestinian prisoner society in a statement.

The vast majority had been held without trial in Israeli prisons. Less than two dozen of them fulfilled life imprisonment after being convicted of attacks against Israelis.

During the 15 months of the Israel War in Gaza, almost 48,000 people have been killed in the besieged strip, according to local officials.

In spite From the president of the United States, this week, who wanted him to want him to want the United States to take control of the enclave.

On Friday, Hamas delayed the confirmation that the exchange would be programmed, as required by the Fire Alto Agreement, after complaining that Israel had not allowed tens of thousands of tents and mobile houses to Gaza.

The Fire Alto Agreement required by the Alto Agreement the required fire of these humanitarian supplies, a person familiar with the details, although it is not clear when the delivery was supposed to arrive.

The need for refuge became increasingly urgent this week as the winter storms whipped the coastal enclave. Around 2 million people have been displaced there and live in extended cities and the ruins of their neighborhoods.

The future of Alto El Fuego has also been questioned by Netanyahu’s promise earlier this week of resuming war with Hamas, after Donald Trump favors the displacement of the entire Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip.

Trump’s proposal, which would be illegal according to international law and has caused generalized indignation in the Arab world, would tear Gaza from Palestinian control and force its population to neighboring countries to launch a reconstruction plan that would make it a ” Riviera de la Oriente Medio “.

The high fire of three stages is currently in a transition between the first and the second phases, during which the negotiations to end the war take place.

In the first period of six weeks, Hamas had to free 33 Israeli hostages, including all children, women and men over 50. For Saturday, he had launched 21 of them. This six -week period ends in the first week of March.

The group originally took about 250 people as hostages on October 7, 2023. He launched around 120 during a high fire in November 2023 in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. It is believed that many of the remaining 76 hostages are dead.

Last week, Hamas launched five Thai agricultural workers who were taken captive during the cross -border raid that triggered the war.

Hamas will only begin to free the male soldiers who took captives and will deliver the bodies of the dead hostages if the negotiations manage to convert the high temporal fire into a permanent truce. That would require Israel to withdraw his forces from Gaza.

These conversations had to start this week, but Israel has not yet sent high -level teams to Qatar or Egypt, which are mediating the agreement together with the United States.

If Netanyahu ends the war, risks the collapse of its ruler coalition of the right, which includes a political party of the extreme right. Its demands include continuous combat operations, a permanent reward of the Gaza Strip and the expulsion of its Palestinian population, which varies with Trump’s proposal.

Hamas has rejected those plans, which were also condemned by the Arab and European allies of the United States.