Hamas releases names of three more Israeli hostages set to be freed over weekend
31 January 2025, 11:24 | Updated: 31 January 2025, 12:05
Hamas has released the names of the three Israeli hostages who are set be freed this weekend.
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Ofer Kalderon, Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas will be released on Saturday.
Israel and Hamas are exchanging hostages and prisoners as a fragile ceasefire holds in Gaza.
It will mark the fourth such exchange. Yesterday, eight people were released including three Israelis and five Thai nationals.
In return, Israel is expected to release another 110 Palestinian prisoners, in the third such exchange since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took hold earlier this month.
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 fighting which killed about 1,200 people.
Some 251 hostages were taken by Hamas while Israel's 15-month military offensive killed 47,460 Palestinians.
Yarden Bibas was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
Photos taken during the abduction appear to show him wounded.
His wife, Shiri, and two boys, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken captive at the kibbutz.
Hamas has claimed that Shiri Babas and the two boys were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israel has not verified the claim.
Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli hostage, was captured by the militants from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his two children.
His ex-wife, Hadas, was also taken captive.
The two children and Hadas Kalderon were released during the hostage exchange in November.
Keith Siegel, an American Israeli originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza along with his wife, Aviva Siegel.
Aviva Siegel was released during a brief ceasefire period in November 2023, and since then has waged a high-profile campaign to free Keith and the other hostages remaining in Gaza.
Hostages exchanged in chaotic handover in Gaza
Hamas had set up two locations for the releases, one in Jabaliya and the other in the southern city of Khan Younis, in front of the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Red Cross vehicles arrived at Jabaliya, where hundreds of masked militants and onlookers had gathered.
Yesterday, a chaotic handover saw Arbel Yehud and Gadi Moses transferred along with the five Thai nationals in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza.
Earlier, female soldier Agam Berger was released in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
The 20-year-old was handed over to the Red Cross at a ceremony in the a destroyed urban refugee camp.
The Israeli government later confirmed that Ms Berger was with its forces.
Read more: Watch moment Israeli hostages are handed to Red Cross by Hamas in third swap of ceasefire
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.
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.
