Hamas, Israel to begin fifth hostage-prisoner exchange

DE IR AL BALAH - Hamas is set to release three Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for 183 prisoners held by Israel in the fifth exchange of a fragile Gaza ceasefire.

The swap comes after President Donald Trump proposed clearing out the Gaza Strip of its inhabitants and for the United States to take over the Palestinian territory, a plan that has sparked global uproar and been rejected by Hamas.

Dozens of armed Hamas fighters formed a cordon around an open area in the city of Deir el-Balah early Saturday, apparently to control crowds eager to watch the hostage release.

As with past exchanges, a stage was erected for the occasion, festooned with a banner bearing images of destroyed Israeli armoured vehicles and a dejected-looking Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister.

In Tel Aviv's "Hostages Square", where hundreds were expected later to watch the handover, a huge screen counted down the days, hours, minutes and seconds since Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack, when the hostages were first seized.

Netanyahu's office confirmed to AFP on Friday that it had received a list of the three hostages due to be released after Hamas first published their names.

They are Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami.

Sharabi, 52, was at his home in kibbutz Beeri with his British-born wife and their two daughters when Hamas stormed it.

The armed men shot their dog, before locking the family in their safe room and setting it on fire. The bodies of his wife and two daughters were later identified.

Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival, where gunmen murdered his wife. Ben Ami, who has dual Israeli-German citizenship, turned 56 in captivity.

Former hostage Yarden Bibas, who was freed last week by Hamas militants in Gaza, on Friday urged Netanyahu to help bring back his wife and two children from the Palestinian territory.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu, I'm now addressing you with my own words... bring my family back, bring my friends back, bring everyone home," Bibas said in his first public message following his release.

Hamas previously said his wife Shiri and his two sons Ariel and Kfir, the youngest hostages were dead, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.

Netanyahu, who is in Washington, will "monitor this phase of the hostages' release from the control centre of the delegation in the US", the premier's office said in a separate statement.

'NOW IS THE TIME'

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum urged the government on Friday to stick with the Gaza truce, even as Trump's comments sparked backlash across the Middle East and beyond.

"An entire nation demands to see the hostages return home," the Israeli campaign group said in a statement.

"Now is the time to ensure the agreement is completed -- until the very last one," it added.

Israel and Hamas have completed four swaps under the first stage of the ceasefire agreement.

Palestinian militants, led by Hamas, have so far freed 18 hostages in exchange for around 600 mostly Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

The ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 33 hostages during the first 42-day phase of the agreement.

Negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks.

Netanyahu's office said that after Saturday's swap, an Israeli delegation will head to Doha for further negotiations on the ceasefire.

The second phase aims to secure the release of more hostages and pave the way for a permanent end to the war, which began with Hamas's October 7 attack.

During the attack, militants took 251 hostages to Gaza. Seventy-six remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliation has killed at least 47,583 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.