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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Hamas-led militants released three more hostages, all Israeli civilian men, to the Red Cross on Saturday, and Israel was to free dozens of Palestinian prisoners as part of a fragile agreement that has paused the war in the Gaza Strip.

US President Donald Trump’s stunning proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza, welcomed by Israel but vehemently rejected by the Palestinians and most of the international community, does not appear to have affected the current phase of the truce, which runs until early March.

But it could complicate talks over the second and more difficult phase, when Hamas is to release dozens more hostages in return for a lasting ceasefire. Hamas may be reluctant to free more captives – and lose its main bargaining chip – if it believes the US and Israel are serious about depopulating the territory, which rights groups say would violate international law.

The three hostages – Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and Or Levy, 34 – appeared very gaunt and pale as armed Hamas fighters led them from a white van onto a stage set up in the town of Deir Al-Balah.

All were abducted during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war.

Before a crowd of hundreds of people, Hamas fighters pointed a microphone at each of the three in turn and made them make a public statement, before handing them over to waiting Red Cross officials. It was the first time hostages freed during this phase of the ceasefire have been made to make public statements during their release.

Hours before the release, dozens of masked and armed Hamas fighters, some driving white pickup trucks with guns mounted on them, lined up at the location of the exchange near the territory’s main north-south highway in Central Gaza.

This was the fifth swap of hostages for prisoners since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19. Before Saturday, 18 hostages and more than 550 Palestinian prisoners had been freed.

The first phase of the ceasefire calls for the release of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 prisoners, the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid to the devastated territory. Last week, wounded Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt for the first time since May.

Who was released on Saturday?

Sharabi and Ben Ami were both taken hostage from Kibbutz Beeri, one of the hardest-hit farming communities in the Hamas attack. Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival, where he was taking shelter in a saferoom when the militants arrived.

Sharabi’s wife and two teeanage daughters were killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, while his brother Yossi was also abducted and died in captivity. Levy’s wife was also killed during the attack. His now 3-year-old son has been cared for by relatives for the past 16 months.

Ben Ami, a father of three, was kidnapped with his wife, Raz. Raz Ben Ami was released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023.

Relatives of the hostages cheered, clapped and cried as they watched live footage of their loved ones being released.

Or Levy’s brother Michael said his brother’s young son, Almog, was already informed his father was on his way.

“Mogi, we found daddy,” Michael Levy said he told the boy, using his nickname, in an interview with Israeli Channel 12. “We haven’t seen happiness like that in him for a long time.”

The 183 Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel on Saturday include 18 people serving life sentences for committing deadly attacks, 54 serving long-term sentences and 111 Palestinians from Gaza who were detained after the Oct. 7 attack. All are men, ranging in age from 20 to 61.

While Israel considers them to be terrorists, Palestinians view them as heroes battling Israeli occupation. Virtually every Palestinian has a friend, relative or acquaintance who has been imprisoned.

More than 100 hostages were released during a weeklong ceasefire in Nov. 2023. More than 70 are still in Gaza, and Israel has said 34 are believed to have been killed in the initial attack or to have died in captivity. Israel says Hamas has confirmed that eight of the 33 to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire are dead.

Ceasefire is holding but next phase is uncertain

It is not clear whether Israel and Hamas have begun negotiating a second phase of the ceasefire, which calls for releasing the remaining hostages and extending the truce indefinitely. The war could resume in early March if an agreement is not reached.

Israel says it is still committed to destroying Hamas, even after the militant group reasserted its rule over Gaza within hours of the latest ceasefire. A key far-right partner in Netanyahu’s coalition is calling for the war to resume after the ceasefire’s first phase.

Hamas says it won’t release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

DAMASCUS: The head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global non-proliferation agency, will meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, three sources familiar with the visit told Reuters.
Director General Fernando Arias was expected to meet interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, two of the sources said, in a sign of Syrian willingness to cooperate with the agency after years of strained relations under now-toppled leader Bashar Assad.
The sudden fall of the Assad government in December brought hope that the country could be rid of chemical weapons.
Following a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people in 2013, Syria joined the OPCW under a US-Russian deal and 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed by the international community.
As part of membership, Damascus was supposed to be subjected to inspections. But for more than a decade the OPCW was prevented from uncovering the true scale of the chemical weapons program. Syria’s declared stockpile has never accurately reflected the situation on the ground, inspectors concluded.
When asked about contacts with the OPCW over chemical weapons still in Syria, the country’s new defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra told Reuters in January that he “does not believe” that any remnants of Syria’s chemical weapons program remained intact.
“Even if there was anything left, it’s been bombed by the Israeli military,” Abu Qasra said, referring to a wave of Israeli strikes across Syria in the wake of Assad’s fall.
Details of the mission to Syria are still being worked out but its key aims will be finding and securing chemical stocks to prevent proliferation risk, identifying those responsible for their use and overseeing the destruction of remaining munitions.
The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation.
Three investigations — a joint UN-OPCW mechanism, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification team, and a UN war crimes investigation — concluded that Syrian government forces used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks during the civil war that killed or injured thousands.
A French court issued an arrest warrant for Assad which was upheld on appeal over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians. Syria and its military backer Russia always denied using chemical weapons.
The OPCW, a treaty-based agency in The Hague with 193 member countries, is tasked with implementing the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Egypt, North Korea, and South Sudan have neither signed nor acceded to the convention and Israel has signed but not ratified it.