Three Israeli hostages and five Thai nationals captured by Hamas are set to be freed on Thursday following a ceasefire agreement that came into effect this month.
Agam Berger was the first of three Israeli and five Thai hostages to be released this morning from the Gaza Strip as part of a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is set to free two more Israeli hostages in exchange for 110 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
The other two Israeli hostages set to be freed are civilian Arbel Yehud, and 80-year-old Gadi Moses.
A further five Thai captives are also to be released as part of a unilateral move by Hamas, separate from the ceasefire agreement.
Berger was first paraded on stage by armed militants before handed to the Red Cross and then transferred to the Israeli military.
The 20-year-old was kidnapped on 7 October last year from the Nahal Oz military base on the border with Gaza when Hamas militants ambushed southern Israel.
Berger worked as an observer at the base. She had just started in the position two days prior to the attack, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
If the rest of the exchange is successfully completed, it’ll be the third such exchange since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took hold in the Gaza strip earlier this month.
The names of the Thai hostages — believed to be agricultural workers who were captured from their workplaces during Hamas’ 7 October ambush — have not been released.
Thailand’s government said six of its nationals are currently being held captive in Gaza, their names are Watchara Sriuan, Bannawat Seatho, Sathian Suwannakham, Nattapong Pinta, Pongsak Tanna and Surasak Lamnau. Two other Thai hostages are believed to be dead.
Of the Israeli hostages, both Yehud and Moses were captured from the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel on 7 October. Yehud was abducted alongside her partner and his brother, who remain in captivity.
The names of all the prisoners set to be released from their sentences in Israel are also not known, but include 32 serving life sentences and 30 women and children.
Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent former militant leader and theatre director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021, is slated as one of the people to be released.
The exchange is one of three such trades since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 19 January. So far, seven female hostages have been freed in exchange for more than 290 Palestinians from Israeli jails.
On Saturday, a fourth hostage release involving three men is scheduled to take place, according to the Israeli government.
ADVERTISEMENTThe ceasefire agreement was reached this month after a year of painstaking negotiations brokered by United States, Egypt and Qatar.
After multiple delays, Israel began allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return home to northern Gaza as part of the agreement — with many of the returnees finding rubble in place of their homes upon their return.
Additional sources • AP
