The group representing the households of Israeli hostages confirmed Friday the names of three extra captives whom Hamas is anticipated at hand over on Saturday, and there is a twin U.S.-Israeli nationwide amongst them. Keith Seigel, 65, initially from North Carolina, moved to Israel 4 a long time in the past and was amongst these seized throughout Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist assault.
Hamas had earlier offered three names and Israeli officers confirmed receipt of the listing, but it surely was the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board that confirmed the identities, saying it welcomed “the joyous information relating to the anticipated launch of Keith Siegel,” together with Israeli nationals Yarden Bibas and Ofer Calderon.
Seigel’s spouse Aviva Seigel was additionally taken throughout the assault, which noticed militants kill some 1,200 folks and take 251 others hostage, however she was launched beneath a short November 2023 ceasefire and prisoner swap settlement between Israel and Hamas.
Chatting with CBS Information a couple of yr after her launch, Seigel said there have been moments as Hamas militants pressured her and her husband by means of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip that they felt “positive we have been going to die.”
Yarden Bibas, 35, is the husband of Shiri Bibas, who was taken from their kibbutz together with her two younger youngsters Ariel and Kfir throughout the terrorist assault. Hamas claimed simply weeks after the assault that Shiri and her two youngsters have been killed in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.
In a TV interview about half a yr later, then-Israeli authorities minister Benny Gantz indicated that officers knew what had occurred to the Bibas household, however stated it couldn’t present particulars. The truth that, beneath the phrases of the ceasefire deal, Hamas has launched girls and kids earlier than male hostages, steered the remainder of Yarden Bibas’ household was certainly useless.
Ofer Calderon, 54, was amongst 5 members of his household seized by Hamas militants from their kibbutz close to the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023. His two youngsters were released throughout the ceasefire in November of that yr, however two of his cousins have been killed.
Chatting with CBS Boston solely two weeks in the past, Calderon’s cousin Jason Greenberg stated he nonetheless did not know whether or not Ofer was useless or alive.
“It is exhausting to think about anyone having the ability to endure that lengthy and even come again the identical particular person,” Greenberg stated. “If he comes again alive, that is a miracle.”
third hostage-prisoner trade accomplished, however not easily
Eight hostages held by Hamas and its allies in Gaza were freed Thursday in trade for the discharge of 110 Palestinian prisoners, in a 3rd swap facilitated by the delicate ceasefire settlement that took impact on January 19.
The trade started easily with the handover of feminine Israeli soldier Agam Berger, 20. She was handed over in a comparatively orderly vogue amid the ruins of the Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza. However the course of devolved into chaos when massive crowds surrounded Israelis Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Moses as they have been transferred by militants to Crimson Cross personnel in southern Gaza about an hour later.
The scenes angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who delayed the discharge of the Palestinian prisoners for a number of hours till, his workplace stated, mediators of the ceasefire settlement provided ensures that precautions can be taken to make sure the protection of all additional hostages launched beneath the deal.
President Trump’s Center East envoy Steve Witkoff ended a go to and left Israel Thursday after the three hostages have been launched. He spent a lot of the day visiting Gaza, the place he went with members of the Israel Protection Forces, “to examine the implementation [of the ceasefire], as a result of it’s so essential,” he instructed Axios.
“How this occurs will affect our capability to get to phase-two of the deal,” Witkoff stated.
People nonetheless held in Gaza
Seven Americans, together with Seigel, are among the many remaining 82 hostages being held in Gaza, each useless and alive.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and Edan Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey, are regarded as alive, whereas 4 different People are thought to have been killed in captivity.
Israel’s 15-month, blistering navy offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist assault has killed greater than 47,400 folks within the enclave, in accordance with the Hamas-run ministry of well being.
The ministry doesn’t distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties, and Israel disputed its figures throughout the course of the struggle, however a study published earlier in January within the medical journal The Lancet stated the precise toll in Gaza had doubtless surpassed 70,000 folks.
Whole neighborhoods within the densely populated Palestinian territory have been leveled, and just about all of its greater than 2 million inhabitants have been displaced from their properties, a lot of them a number of instances.
