GAZA: Freed Palestinian inmates were greeted by a cheering crowd in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah Saturday, after Hamas released three hostages from the Gaza Strip in the fourth exchange under the group’s ceasefire deal with Zionist entity. Three other buses carrying freed Palestinians also arrived in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, with the inmates in grey prison uniforms met by hundreds of well-wishers. In Ramallah, the bus carrying the inmates struggled to make its way through the jubilant throng of supporters as it arrived from the Zionist-run Ofer Prison.

Several of the freed inmates were hoisted onto the crowd’s shoulders, including an elderly man who raised his crutches over his head in a triumphant pose. Earlier in Gaza, hostages Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas were paraded on stage by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in the southern city of Khan Yunis. American Keith Siegel was freed shortly thereafter in a similar ceremony at Gaza City’s port in the north.

Zionist military later confirmed that all three were back in Zionist entity. Campaign group ‘the Hostages and Missing Families Forum’ hailed the release as “a ray of light in the darkness”. French hostage Kalderon’s uncle Shemi told AFP: “We have waited for this moment for a very long time.” “I hope that this is a sign of the rebirth of the people of (Zionist entity), not just of Ofer, not just of the hostages,” he said, overcome with emotion.

After holding the hostages for more than 15 months, militants in Gaza began releasing them on January 19 under the terms of the ceasefire deal with Zionists. Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have so far handed over 18 hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them women and minors. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group had said Zionist entity would free 183 prisoners. Hamas sources said a fifth hostage-prisoner exchange would take place next Saturday.

During their October 7, 2023 attack, militants abducted Siegel from the Kfar Aza kibbutz community, and Bibas and Kalderon from kibbutz Nir Oz. Militants took a total of 251 people hostage that day. Of those, 76 remain in Gaza, including at least 34 the military says are dead. Those seized include Bibas’s wife Shiri and their two children, whom Hamas has declared dead, although Zionist officials have not confirmed that. Bibas’s sons—Kfir, the youngest hostage, whose second birthday was earlier this month, and his older brother Ariel, whose fifth birthday was in August—have become symbols of the hostages’ ordeal.

Ahead of both exchanges in Khan Yunis and Gaza City, scores of masked Hamas fighters stood sentry, apparently to control onlookers, and large crowds were mostly absent. It was a sharp contrast to Thursday’s frenzied exchange, which drew Zionist condemnation and led it to briefly delay the release of Palestinian prisoners.

‘Difficult’ situation

After Saturday’s hostage release, Gaza’s key Rafah border crossing was reopened, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory saying 50 Palestinian patients had gone through the crossing to Egypt. Egyptian state-linked channel Al-Qahera News showed footage of the first evacuees, including a child with an autoimmune disease, crossing into Egypt to receive treatment. Muhammad Zaqout, director for Gaza hospitals, said he hoped the number would increase. “We now have 6,000 cases ready to be transferred, and more than 12,000 cases that are in dire need of treatment,” he said. Rafah was a vital Gaza aid entry point before the military seized the Palestinian side of the crossing in May.

The fragile ceasefire’s 42-day first phase hinges on the release of a total of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1,900 people, mostly Palestinians, held in Zionist jails. Negotiations for a second phase of the deal are set to start on Monday, according to a timeline provided by a Zionist official. The second phase is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war. The ceasefire deal was negotiated by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States. US President Donald Trump, who has claimed credit for the deal, is expected to host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday. - AFP