Hamas Begins Freeing 8 More Hostages as Gaza Truce Holds. Israel is Set to Release 110 Prisoners

An Israeli police officer looks on as a Red Cross vehicle is seen near the Israeli military prison, Ofer, on the day Israel releases Palestinian prisoners as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli police officer looks on as a Red Cross vehicle is seen near the Israeli military prison, Ofer, on the day Israel releases Palestinian prisoners as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Hamas Begins Freeing 8 More Hostages as Gaza Truce Holds. Israel is Set to Release 110 Prisoners

An Israeli police officer looks on as a Red Cross vehicle is seen near the Israeli military prison, Ofer, on the day Israel releases Palestinian prisoners as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli police officer looks on as a Red Cross vehicle is seen near the Israeli military prison, Ofer, on the day Israel releases Palestinian prisoners as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Hamas began the process of freeing three more Israeli hostages and five Thai captives on Thursday, the third such release since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took hold earlier this month. Israel was expected to release another 110 Palestinian prisoners. 

The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, whose Oct. 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 Associated Press said. 

Hamas handed female Israeli soldier Agam Berger, 20, to the Red Cross at a ceremony in the heavily destroyed urban refugee camp of Jabaliya in northern Gaza. The Israeli government later confirmed that Berger was with its forces. 

Another ceremony was planned in the southern city of Khan Younis, in front of the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Both were attended by hundreds of people, including masked armed men and onlookers. 

In Israel, people cheered, clapped and whistled at a square in Tel Aviv where supporters of the hostages watched Berger’s handover on big screens next to a large clock that’s counted the days the hostages have been in captivity. Some held signs saying: “Agam we’re waiting for you at home.” 

Berger was among five young, female soldiers abducted in the Oct. 7 attack. The other four were released on Saturday. The other two Israelis set to be released Thursday are Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man. 

There was no official confirmation of the identities of the Thai nationals who will be released. 

A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas' attack. Twenty-three Thais were among more than 100 hostages released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says eight Thais remain in captivity, two of whom are believed to be dead. 

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 Hamas 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 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. 

Ceasefire holds for now but next phase will be harder. In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is set to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children, older adults and sick or wounded men, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says Hamas has confirmed that eight of the hostages to be released in this phase are dead. 

Palestinians have cheered the release of the prisoners, who they widely seen as heroes who have sacrificed for the cause of ending Israel’s decades-long occupation of lands they want for a future state. 

Israeli forces have meanwhile pulled back from most of Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return to what remains of their homes and humanitarian groups to surge assistance. 

The deal calls for Israel and Hamas to negotiate a second phase in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages and the ceasefire would continue 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 group reasserted its rule over Gaza within hours of the truce. A key far-right partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is already 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. 

Tens of thousands killed Hamas started the war when it sent thousands of fighters storming into Israel. Hamas killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. 

Israel’s ensuing air and ground war among the deadliest and most destructive in decades. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were Hamas members. 

The Israeli military says it killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence, and that it went to great lengths to try to spare civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in dense residential neighborhoods and put military infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques. 

The Israeli offensive has transformed entire neighborhoods into mounds of gray rubble, and it’s unclear how or when anything will be rebuilt. Around 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, with hundreds of thousands of people living in squalid tent camps or shuttered schools. 

 



Sudan's RSF, Allies Sign Charter for Rival Government

The Sudan war has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst hunger and displacement crises - AFP
The Sudan war has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst hunger and displacement crises - AFP
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Sudan's RSF, Allies Sign Charter for Rival Government

The Sudan war has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst hunger and displacement crises - AFP
The Sudan war has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst hunger and displacement crises - AFP

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces and its allies have agreed to form a parallel government, they said Sunday, despite warnings such a move could further fragment the war-ravaged country.

"The charter has been signed," Najm al-Din Drisa, spokesman of the United Civil Forces, one of the signatories, told AFP.

The parties to the agreement, inked behind closed doors in Nairobi, said the charter establishes a "government of peace and unity" in rebel-controlled areas of the northeast African country.

The move comes nearly two years into a devastating war with the regular army that has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.
Among those who agreed to it was a faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, which controls parts of the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states in the country's south.

Abdel Rahim Daglo, deputy and brother of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo -- who was notably absent -- also signed.

The charter, seen by AFP, calls for "a secular, democratic, decentralized state based on freedom, equality, and justice, without bias toward any cultural, ethnic, religious, or regional identity".

It also outlines plans for a "new, unified, professional, national army" with a new military doctrine that "reflects the diversity and plurality characterizing the Sudanese state".

The proposed government aims to end the war, ensure unhindered humanitarian aid and integrate armed groups into a single, national force.

The war, originally triggered by disputes over integrating the RSF into the military, has killed tens of thousands, with both sides accused of atrocities.

Last month, the US determined the RSF had committed genocide in the western region of Darfur.

The conflict has torn the country in two, with the army controlling the north and east and the RSF holding nearly all of Darfur and swathes of the south.

The army is currently on the verge of recapturing the capital Khartoum, after surging through central Sudan and regaining territory this year.

In its alliance with the SPLM-N, the RSF side now controls more of the south and has border access to Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the move could "increase the fragmentation of the country and risk making this crisis even worse".

But the charter's signatories denied any intentions to divide the country.

Alaa El-Din Nuqd, a signatory representing professional unions, said the proposed government would benefit people in RSF-held areas "who have been cut off from essential services".

Nuqd said the charter was a step toward "protecting the dignity" of war-hit civilians.

Analysts say the move is aimed at strengthening the RSF after their recent battlefield setbacks.

Sudanese political analyst Kholood Khair said the RSF's ultimate goals were to acquire an air force, facilitate humanitarian aid to areas under its control and secure a stronger negotiation position.

"They want to go into mediations as a government, not a militia," she told AFP.

However, any arms sales to the potential government would still be in violation of a Darfur embargo which the United Nations has recommended expanding to cover all of Sudan.