The next three people to be released from Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas include the father of the youngest hostage and a dual US national.
A spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing said that Yarden Bibas, 35, Keith Siegel, 65, and Ofer Kalderon, 54, will be released in the next exchange, expected on Saturday.
Ninety Palestinians, including nine serving life sentences and 81 serving long-term sentences, are to be released in return.
Under the ceasefire deal that halted more than 15 months of conflict, 33 hostages held by the Palestinian militants in Gaza are to be freed in the first six weeks of the truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian detainees, many of whom have been serving life sentences in Israel.
Hundreds of Palestinians, including children, are detained by Israel without charge. Fifteen hostages, including the five Thai workers, and 400 Palestinians have so far been exchanged.
The war was triggered by an attack by Hamas inside Israel on 7 October, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken captive. Israel’s retaliatory offensive inside Gaza has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry, and laid waste to the territory home to 2.3 million people, who face severe shortages of medicine, fuel and food.
Mr Bibas is the father of baby Kfir, only nine months old when he was kidnapped on 7 October, and Ariel, who was four at the time of the cross-border attack. Mr Bibas’s wife, Shiri, the mother of the two children, was also taken at the same time.
Shiri, Ariel and Kfir remain unaccounted for amid “grave concerns” over their wellbeing, with the likely release of Mr Bibas marking a painful moment for the large numbers of Israelis and other supporters around the world who have long campaigned for the Bibas family’s release.
Video of Shiri holding on to her children as she was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen from the Nir Oz kibbutz became an enduring image of the Hamas attack.
Under the latest ceasefire agreement, living women and children were supposed to be freed first, but Ariel and Kfir were the only children being held who were not released in a previous week-long truce in November 2023. Hamas says that Shiri and her two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the conflict. Israel has not confirmed that claim, but last week the military said there were “grave concerns” about what has happened to them.
Relatives of the Bibas family said in a statement: “We said then, and we say now: we hold on to hope and continue waiting for their return. We await clarity regarding their condition.”
The second hostage to be released this weekend, Israeli-American Keith Siegel, who was taken hostage with his wife Aviva, was seen in a video released by Hamas last year. His wife was released in the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange in November 2023.
Ofer Kalderon’s two children, Erez and Sahar, abducted alongside him, were also released in the first exchange.
This weekend’s exchange will be the fourth iteration of the tentative peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
On Thursday, Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza while Israel freed 110 Palestinians.
But the exchange sparked anger in Israel after footage showed some of the hostages in Gaza being surrounded by crowds. The release of the Palestinian prisoners was delayed as a result.
“Whoever dares to harm our captives, his blood will be on his head,” wrote Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the swap.
The exchange on Thursday had been born out of a disagreement between Israel and Hamas after the last living female hostage, Arbel Yehoud, was not included in the exchange the previous weekend. Israel responded by delaying the opening of the Netzarim corridor to northern Gaza until the start of this week, effectively preventing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from returning home.
The US, Egypt and Qatar brokered Thursday’s swap, breaking with the informal tradition of carrying out the exchanges on the weekends, to ensure the corridor was opened.
It was Ms Yehoud who was then surrounded by crowds on Thursday before she was released, prompting anger from the Israeli government.
The Palestinian prisoners and detainees to be released on the weekend include 30 minors and some convicted members of Palestinian groups responsible for deadly attacks that have killed dozens of people in Israel.
More talks on the implementation of the second stage of the deal, due to begin by 4 February, are meant to open the way to the release of over 60 other hostages, including men of military age, and a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
If that succeeds, a formal end to the war could follow along with talks on the monumental challenge of reconstructing Gaza.
