Israel and Hamas are set to carry out the fifth exchange of hostages for Palestinian detainees under a ceasefire agreement on Saturday, despite doubts cast on the continuation of the process by Donald Trump's proposal for a US takeover of Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Israel will release 183 prisoners in exchange for three hostages held in Gaza whom the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has pledged to free.
Israel and the Hostages' Families Forum have confirmed that the hostages are three men kidnapped during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023: Or Levy, 33 at the time of his capture, Eli Sharabi, 51, and Israeli-German Ohad Ben Ami, 55.
This will be the fifth such exchange since the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip came into force on January 19, after 15 months of war triggered by the Hamas attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will monitor the process from the United States, where he is visiting, according to his office.
The Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, “have decided to release the Zionist prisoners tomorrow, Saturday," said their spokesman, Abu Obeida, on Telegram.
Hamas further accused Israel of delaying the entry into Gaza of rubble-clearing machinery, claiming that this was affecting the extraction of the bodies of hostages “dead, bombed by Israel.”
“Help me”
Hamas had announced the death in an Israeli bombardment of Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who would now be aged five and two, which Israel has not confirmed.
Their husband and father, Yarden Bibas, released on February 1, urged Netanyahu on Friday to bring them back to Israel. “Everything here is darkness (...), help me bring light back into my life," said the 35-year-old former hostage.
Since the beginning of the truce, 18 hostages and around 600 Palestinian prisoners have been released. The first six-week phase of the agreement should lead to the release of a total of 33 hostages, including at least eight dead, against 1,900 Palestinians.
Of the 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 76 are still being held in Gaza, at least 34 of them dead, according to the army.
Indirect negotiations on the second phase of the truce agreement began on Tuesday in Qatar, the mediating country along with the United States and Egypt, according to Hamas.
This second phase is supposed to lead to the release of all hostages and the definitive end of the war in Gaza, before a final stage dedicated to the reconstruction of the Palestinian territory.
“No hurry”
But the cards have been considerably reshuffled by Donald Trump, who has proposed an American takeover of Gaza and the displacement of its population, notably to Egypt or Jordan, in order to rebuild it.
After insisting on this project on Thursday, the American president asserted on Friday that he was “in absolutely no hurry.”
Amman and Cairo rejected his idea, which sparked an international outcry, with the UN warning against “ethnic cleansing." It was roundly condemned by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
However vague, Trump's plan nonetheless raises the long-term prospect of a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Such a settlement has been supported by a large part of the international community, including the United States until now, but Israel is firmly opposed to it.
Since his return to the White House on January 20, the Republican president has stepped up his gestures of unconditional support for Israel.
The latest, on Thursday, includes sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused of having “engaged in illegal actions” against “America and our close ally Israel.”
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza.
Didier Lauras, with AFP
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