(22 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rafah – 22 February 2025
1. Various of scene as Hamas prepare to release Israeli hostages to the ICRC in Rafah
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nuseirat – 22 February 2025
2. Various of scene as Hamas prepare to release Israeli hostages to the ICRC in Nuseirat
STORYLINE:
Hamas was preparing to release six living Israeli hostages from Gaza on Saturday morning under the terms of the ceasefire deal.
The Hamas-linked Palestinian prisoners media office said over 600 Palestinians were also to be freed from Israeli prisons on Saturday in exchange for the hostages.
The six Israeli men set for release – two in Rafah and four in Nuseirat – are expected to be the last living hostages freed during the ceasefire’s first phase.
They include Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; and Omer Wenkert, 23. All three were abducted from a music festival during the October 7 attack. Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken from the community of Kibbutz Beeri, is also set to be released.
In addition, Avera Mengistu, 39, and Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who have been held since crossing into Gaza on their own years ago, are scheduled to be returned.
The names, released by Hamas, were confirmed earlier this week by the Hostages and Missing Families forum, the group representing hostage families.
More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange, the Palestinian prisoners media office said Friday.
The prisoners set for release include 50 serving life sentences, 60 with long sentences, 47 who were released under a previous hostage-for-prisoner exchange and 445 prisoners from Gaza arrested since the war began.
Hamas has said it will also release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. It is unclear whether the truce will be extended.
If the current phase of the ceasefire goes according to plan, Hamas would retain about 60 hostages living and dead. About half — all men — are believed to be alive.
Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.
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