(30 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – 30 January 2025
1. Various of Hamas fighters driving in trucks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jabaliya, Gaza Strip – 30 January 2025
2. Palestinians gathered in area with flags and decorations
STORYLINE:
Groups of Hamas fighters were seen driving in vehicles in Gaza as they are set to free three more Israeli hostages Thursday.
Five Thai captives are also set to be released and Israel is set to release another 110 Palestinian prisoners.
In Jabaliya Palestinians were seen gathering in an area with flags and decorations ready for celebrations.
The exchange expected Thursday would be the third since the start of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that has held for a week and a half.
The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, whose October 7, 2023, attack into Israel sparked the fighting.
It has held despite a dispute earlier this week over the sequence in which the hostages were released.
The Israelis set to be released are Arbel Yehoud, 29, Agam Berger, 20 — who was abducted along with four other female soldiers who were freed Saturday — and Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man. The identities of the Thai nationals who will be released were not immediately known.
A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack that set off the war.
Twenty-three Thais were among more than 100 hostages released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says eight remain.
Of the people set to be released from prisons in Israel, 30 are serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis.
Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent former militant leader and theater director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 before being rearrested days later, is also among those set to be released.
Israel said Yehoud was supposed to have been freed Saturday and delayed the opening of crossings to northern Gaza when she was not.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the ceasefire after a year of tough negotiations, resolved the dispute with an agreement that Yehoud and two other hostages would be released Thursday.
Another three hostages, all men, are set to be freed Saturday along with dozens more Palestinian prisoners.
On Monday, Israel began allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, the most heavily destroyed part of the territory, and hundreds of thousands streamed back. Many found only mounds of rubble where their homes had been.
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