GAZA: The Zionist entity and Hamas completed their fifth captive-prisoner swap under a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal on Saturday. Out of the 183 inmates released by the Zionist entity in return for three Zionist captives, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said seven required hospitalization, decrying "brutality” and mistreatment in jail.
The Zionist offensive has killed at least 48,181 people in Gaza, the majority civilians. The confirmed number of dead published by the Gaza health ministry has continued to rise daily as bodies are discovered under the rubble, victims are identified or people die from wounds sustained earlier in the war.
Over the last 48 hours, 26 deaths were recorded and more than 570 earlier deaths had been confirmed, according to the ministry. It said a total of 111,638 people have been wounded during the war, which began in Oct 2023. A study published in early January in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated the death toll in Gaza due to hostilities during the first nine months of the was about 40 percent higher than the figures recorded by the Gaza health ministry.
The United States on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in bombs, missiles and related equipment to the Zionist entity, which has used American-made weapons to devastating effect during the war in Gaza. The State Department has signed off on the sale of $6.75 billion in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660 million in Hellfire missiles, according to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).
Representative Gregory Meeks, ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, denounced what he termed a decision to break with a long-standing precedent for congressional review of major weapons sales. He said he had been discussing his concerns about the sale with the administration, which had failed to provide significant documentation or justification.
The fifth captive-prisoner exchange since the truce took effect last month comes as negotiations are set to begin on the next phase of the ceasefire, which should pave the way for a permanent end to the war. Saturday’s swap also follows remarks by President Donald Trump suggesting the United States should take over the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants, sparking global outrage.
Jubilant crowds in Tel Aviv cheered as they watched live footage of the three captives, flanked by masked gunmen, brought on stage in Deir el-Balah before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The choreographed handover included statements from the three on stage, in which they stated support for finalizing the next phases of the Zionist-Hamas truce. The office of Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose dejected-looking portrait appeared on a banner at the Deir el-Balah handover site, said the images out of Gaza were "shocking”.
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, relatives and supporters gathered to welcome inmates released by the Zionist entity, embracing them and cheering as they stepped off the bus that brought them from nearby Ofer prison. The Zionist prison service said 183 Palestinians were released to the West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group and the Palestinian Red Crescent said that seven of them had been admitted to hospital in the West Bank. "All the prisoners who were released today are in need of medical care... as a result of the brutality they were subjected” to in jail, said the advocacy group, which has long decried abuses of Palestinians in Zionist custody.
Hamas in a statement accused the Zionist entity of "systematic assaults and mistreatment of our prisoners”, calling it "part of the policy of... the slow killing of prisoners”. Gaza fighters have so far freed 21 hostages in exchange for hundreds of mostly Palestinian prisoners released from Zionist jails. Five Thai captives freed last week from Gaza were discharged on Saturday from a hospital in the Zionist entity, where they had been treated since their release, and were headed back to their home country.
The ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 12 more captives during its first 42-day phase. Negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks. Netanyahu’s office said that after Saturday’s swap, a Zionist delegation would head to Doha for further talks. – Agencies