Palestine-based Hamas has released the names of three Israeli female hostages to be freed on Sunday under a ceasefire deal that is still not in force. The implementation of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was delayed on Sunday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded an hour before the 06:30 am GMT deadline that Hamas provide the names of three hostages it was to release on Sunday. agreement.
“As part of the prisoner swap deal, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades decided today to release the following Israeli prisoners,” Hamas’s armed wing said in a statement, naming the women.
Once the ceasefire agreement comes into force, it will stop one of the Middle East’s most devastating conflicts in years. Earlier in the day, the Israeli government also released a list of 33 hostages that Hamas will release in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire.
The following is a list of hostages to be released in the first phase of the deal.
We can’t wait for you to come home! ? pic.twitter.com/UO3hlyhSS1
— Government Press Office?? (@GPOIsrael) 19 January 2025
Those on the list are likely to be handed over by Hamas fighters to Israeli troops over a period of 42 days. The hostages include women, children, elderly and disabled people.
The release schedule will be such that three hostages will be brought back on the first day after the deal is implemented, followed by four more hostages on the seventh day.
After this, three hostages will be returned every week for the next four weeks. According to a report in The Times of Israel, the remaining 14 hostages will be released in the final, sixth week of the first phase.
Israel’s list included the name of Kfir Bibas, who was taken with her now four-year-old brother, Ariel, and her mother and father, Shiri and Yarden. Kfir, who was kidnapped at just 9 months old, became a symbol of the suffering of the hostages.
The list also includes Liri Albagh (19), Itzik Elgarat (69), Karina Ariev (20), Ohad Ben-Ami (55), Agam Berger (20), Romy Gonen (24), Danielle Gilboa (20), Emily Damari Are. (28), Sagui Dekel-Chen (36), Yair Horn (46), Omar Wenkert (23), Sasha Trofanov (29), Arbel Yehoud (29), Ohad Yahalomi (50), Elia Cohen (27), Or Levy (24), Naama Levy (20), Oded Lifshitz (83), Gadi Moshe Mozes (80), Avera Mengisto (37), Shlomo Mantzur (86), Keith Siegel (65), Tsahi Idan (50), Ofer Calderon (53), Tal Shoham (39), Doron Steinbrecher (31), Omer Shem-Tov (22), Hisham El Sayed (35) , and Eli Sharabi (55).
