Members of Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades gather in the square to release Israeli hostages as part of a hostage swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Deir al Balah, Gaza, on February 8, 2025.
Hamas is preparing to release three Israeli captives held in Gaza in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The swap of the captives, due to take place on Saturday morning, is the fifth exchange so far under the Gaza ceasefire deal, which appears increasingly fragile amid United States President Donald Trump’s proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians from the enclave.
Hamas and Israel have confirmed that three civilian men – Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 – will be released on Saturday under the agreed first phase of the truce, which runs until early March.
A stage was set up in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza ahead of the release, which will see the captives handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Banners on the stage read: “We are the flood, we are the war’s next day.”
Sharabi and Ben Ami were both taken from Kibbutz Be’eri, a farming community targeted by Hamas during its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken captive. Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival.
Israel is due to release 183 male Palestinian prisoners, including senior Hamas figures, between the ages of 20 and 61 on the same day. Seven will be transferred to Egypt ahead of further deportation.
Among those slated for release is Iyad Abu Shakhdam, 49, who was jailed for nearly 21 years over his involvement in Hamas attacks on Israel in the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.
Another is Jamal al-Tawil, a prominent Hamas politician in the occupied West Bank and former mayor of the village of el-Bireh, near Ramallah, who has spent nearly two decades in and out of Israeli detention.
Following his arrest in 2021, al-Tawil was held in administrative detention, a renewable six-month period in which suspects are held without charge or trial.
Overnight, the Israeli military is reported to have carried out raids across the occupied West Bank on the family homes of Palestinians set for release.
The Palestinian Information Center said that houses in the village of Deir Nidham, northwest of Ramallah were among the targets, while “dozens” of people in the city of Qalqilya were arrested.
