JERUSALEM — Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, as well as five Thai nationals during the next hostage release set for Thursday, Israel and Hamas said Wednesday as their tenuous ceasefire moves ahead.
The Israeli women are Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Agam Berger, 20, and the man is Gadi Moses. The identities of the Thai nationals were not immediately known.
A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that set off the war in Gaza. Twenty-three Thai hostages were released in the first ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says eight remain.
Thursday’s release would keep up the momentum of the ceasefire that began earlier this month and paused the 15-month war in Gaza.
Hamas is releasing hostages in phases in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The prisoners range from individuals detained over minor offenses in recent months to senior militants serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks on Israeli civilians. Some have been held without charge or trial.
Hostages and prisoners will be released twice this week
The deal had been negotiated for months under the Biden administration but was finally sealed after incoming President Donald Trump threatened there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages weren’t returned.
Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in Israel on Wednesday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads to Washington next week as the first foreign leader to meet Trump in his second term.
The White House meeting on Feb. 4 comes a day after talks on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, aimed at ending the war, are meant to resume.
Thursday’s hostage release wasn’t originally scheduled but came as a result of a standoff between Israel and Hamas over the identities of the hostages released last weekend.
Israel had demanded that Yehoud, a civilian, be part of that group. When she wasn’t freed, it held up the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to war-battered northern Gaza.
International mediation efforts brought about the plan for an additional release on Thursday and cleared the way for Palestinians to stream north. Another release occurs Saturday, which Netanyahu’s office said would free male hostages. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners are set to be freed both Thursday and Saturday.
Among the prisoners slated for release Thursday is Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent former militant leader and theater director whose dramatic jailbreak in 2021 thrilled Palestinians and stunned the Israeli security establishment.
