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Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian detainees and prisoners in the latest stage of aimed at opening the way to ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, both taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during , and Or Levy, abducted that day from the Nova music festival, will be handed over on Saturday, Hamas said.
In exchange, Israel will release 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people and including 18 serving life sentences and 111 detained in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas.
Dozens of masked and armed Hamas fighters deployed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, at the site of the exchange, where hostages were handed over to the International Red Cross Committee, which is transporting them to Israeli forces in Gaza.
“I can’t even start to describe the emotions, the excitement, how happy we are that it’s finally close to be over,” said Michael Levy, brother of Or Levy, who lost his wife in the October 7 attack and has a three-year-old son.
“We are waiting to hug him, waiting to see Almog (Levy’s son), hugging his father again.”
Other hostages also face a harsh return. Sharabi’s two teenage daughters and his British-born wife were slain in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where one in 10 residents was killed.
“We are counting the minutes, the seconds and we just want him to be here already,” said Astrid Dafan-van Dien, a friend of Sharabi, “although it will be very difficult because of Lianne (Sharabi’s wife) and the girls.”
Ceasefire’s first phase continues
Despite hiccups, a 42-day ceasefire and hostage-for-prisoner exchange worked out with United States backing and mediation by Egypt and Qatar has held up since it took effect nearly three weeks ago.
But fears the deal might collapse before all the hostages are free have grown since and for the enclave to be handed to the US and developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Arab states and Palestinian groups , which critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, and his defence minister ordered the military to make plans to allow Palestinians who wished to leave Gaza to do so.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Trump’s statements and that Australia’s position supporting an remained unchanged.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton said those who dismissed Trump’s idea defied “the reality of the gravitas that he brings to the situation”.
Under the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli children, women and sick, wounded and older men are to be released during an initial phase in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Negotiations on a second phase began this week aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing to a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation for a final end to the war.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages.
In response, Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and
The October 7 attack was a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
