Hamas al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida announced on Friday the names of three hostages who will be released tomorrow from the Gaza Strip, including one with dual German-Israeli nationality.
The chosen captives are the German-Israeli Ohad Ben Ami, 56, kidnapped with his wife, Raz Ben Ami (since released), from Kibbutz Beeri; Eli Sharabi, 53, who lost his children and wife in the Hamas attack on the same kibbutz on October 7, 2023; and Or Levy, 34, taken by force at the Nova festival.
In return, a total of 183 Palestinian terrorist prisoners and detainees will be released.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed in a statement on Friday that the national intelligence service (Mossad) and the army had received the list of kidnapped people and said that the respective families had been informed.
Tomorrow's exchange will be the fifth since the start of the ceasefire in Gaza, in force since January 19, thanks to which another 18 hostages (including five Thais not originally included in the first phase of the agreement) have already been freed in an exchange for nearly 600 Palestinian terrorists.
But apart from the 33 hostages who must be released by March 1, only through further negotiations will male Israeli soldiers and men aged 19 to 50 be allowed to leave Gaza in the second phase – something relatives of the captives are pleading with Netanyahu to make happen.
“We have a sacred duty and moral right to bring all our brothers and sisters home. We will not give up or stop until all the hostages are returned, as agreed, every last one of them: the living for recovery and the deceased for proper burial,” the Forum for Hostages and Families of Missing Persons, the main body advocating the hostage release agreement, said today after announcing the names of the three captives.
Although Netanyahu announced three days ago, after meeting with several US officials, that a negotiating team would travel to Doha later this week to “discuss technical details related to the continued implementation of the agreement,” that trip has not yet taken place.
A senior Israeli official said he had “no news” about the alleged trip, which was due to take place tomorrow, while Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, confirmed that negotiations “have not yet begun.”