Israel frees Palestinian prisoners after chaotic hostage handover

Boston Globe

30-01-2025

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The episode briefly cast doubt on whether the prisoner release would happen at all.
Netanyahu blasted the 'shocking scenes' of crowds yelling and jostling to get nearer to a fearful-looking Yehud and a grim-looking Moses. 'This is additional proof of the inconceivable brutality of the Hamas terrorist organization,' the Israel prime minister said.
He called on the international mediators to secure guarantees from Hamas for 'the safe exit of our hostages in the next rounds.' The Israeli government later relented, releasing the imprisoned Palestinians, saying that mediators had promised safe passage for hostages in future exchanges.
In a statement, Hamas said that the turnout of the crowds for the hostage handovers showed that Palestinians were determined to remain on their land. To Israelis, the chaos illustrated Hamas's desire to humiliate and torment the hostages even as they were being freed.
In previous handovers, the militants have driven hostages into jubilant, sometimes jeering crowds before transferring them to Red Cross officials, who then handed them to Israeli officials.
In addition to three Israeli hostages, Hamas on Thursday freed five Thai agricultural workers who were among those abducted when the militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. They were Pongsak Thanna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Seathao, and Surasak Lamnao. The fate of one remaining Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, remained unclear.
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The exchanges came during the first phase of a provisional cease-fire lasting 42 days, and Israel and Hamas still have to negotiate the next one.
Before the hostages were freed in Khan Younis on Thursday, large numbers of Palestinians gathered near the home of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza who was killed by Israel in October. A small white van carrying the captives and surrounded by armed gunmen slowly pushed its way through the yelling crowds.
Photos and video footage show Yehud, one of the last living female hostages to be held in Gaza, walking cautiously through the throngs while surrounded by rifle-wielding militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad as they walked toward a Red Cross convoy. The Red Cross handed Yehud over to Israeli soldiers.
The third freed Israeli hostage, Moses, was also forced to wend his way through a tight crowd of spectators.
Yves Daccord, a former director general of the Red Cross, said the handovers in Khan Younis were 'risky,' 'unacceptable' and 'absolutely psychological torture.'
'Releasing hostages in this way creates an enormous trauma on top of everything that has already happened,' he said in an interview. Ideally, he said, hostages should be released away from crowds and cameras.
After her release, Yehud was taken to Sheba Hospital in the city of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv. She was met with crowds in Israel, too, but they were welcoming. 'Our life's mission to bring Arbel back to us has succeeded,' her family said in a statement.
Yehud was 28 when she was taken hostage along with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. Cunio is believed to still be a captive in Gaza. Yehud's brother, Dolev Yehud, a medic, was identified last year as having been killed during the Hamas-led attack.
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In a statement posted by the Hostage Families Forum, an umbrella organization, Yehud's family urged Israeli officials to pursue the cease-fire agreement until all hostages were released. 'Everyone must be brought home immediately so that we can heal as a society,' it said.
Berger, the soldier returned home from northern Gaza, was in 'good' condition, according to Dr. Eytan Wirtheim, the CEO of Beilinson Hospital, where she was taken.
She had been 19 and serving as a lookout at the Nahal Oz army base near the border with Gaza when the Hamas-led militants stormed the facility, killing more than 50 soldiers and abducting her and six other soldiers. Four of them were released in an exchange Saturday.
Moses, a farming expert, was 79 when he was abducted in Kibbutz Nir Oz after trying to reason with the marauding militants.
His partner, Efrat Katz, had hidden inside a safe room in their home with her daughter and two visiting grandchildren, until they, too, were taken. Their kidnapping was captured on a video that showed them pushed together in the back of a pickup.
Efrat Katz was killed when an Israeli helicopter responding to the attack fired on the vehicle. Her daughter and grandchildren were released in November 2023.
The freed Thai men underwent initial medical examinations Thursday and were found to be in 'good' condition, a spokesperson for Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said in a statement.
Economic hardship has spurred thousands of Thais, particularly from the Isaan region of northeastern Thailand, to take agricultural jobs in Israel. Thai farmhands working in Israel suffered a heavy toll in the 2023 Hamas-led attacks. At least 39 were killed and at least 31 taken hostage, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry.
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Twenty-three of them were released in November 2023. Two others died in captivity, the Foreign Ministry said last May.
Hamas had pledged to free at least 33 hostages in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners during the cease-fire's first phase. On Thursday, Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners, including 32 serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis.
Before the releases, Palestinians stood outside a government recreation center in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday, restlessly checking their phones for updates on the prisoners.
For some waiting outside the recreation center, anticipation was tempered by sorrow.
Alaa Zubeidi was dressed in black in memory of her eldest son, Mohamed, who she said had been killed by an Israeli drone strike in September in their hometown, Jenin. Now, she was awaiting the release of her husband, Zakariya Zubeidi, who over the past two decades has been a militant, a theater director and an escaped prisoner. Israeli forces recaptured him in 2019.
Finally, around 7 p.m., a chain of buses arrived, carrying dozens of former Palestinian prisoners. Sixty-seven others arrived in Ramallah on Thursday, including 27 children, officials said. An additional 14 Palestinians arrived in Jerusalem and nine in Gaza, while 20 were sent to Egypt.
In Beitunia in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as a Red Cross buses carrying freed Palestinian prisoners arrived, Palestinians hurled stones at Israeli forces, who fired stun grenades in response, footage livestreamed on Arabic television networks showed. It was unclear if there were any casualties.
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