Red Cross said on way to pick up hostages; Netanyahu’s office says transfer has not yet begun

By Amy Spiro

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19 January 2025, 3:42 pm

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Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel

This combination of pictures created on January 19, 2025, shows an undated handout picture obtained on January 19, 2025 from The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, of a poster of Israeli hostage Romi Gonen (L), (FILES) a poster of Israeli hostage Emily Tehila Damari (28), during a demonstration by the families of the hostages in central Jerusalem on October 24, 2024 (C) and an undated handout picture obtained on January 19, 2025 from The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, of a poster of Israeli hostage Doron Steinbrecher,(Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / various sources / AFP)

An official involved in the operation tells the Reuters news agency that a Red Cross team in Gaza is on its way to pick up the hostages.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s office says the process of returning the three female hostages to Israel has not yet begun.

The three hostages — Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari — are slated to be handed from Hamas to the Red Cross, which will transfer them to IDF troops in Gaza who will bring them to one of three complexes set up by the IDF next to the Gaza border.

The process is expected to begin this afternoon or evening although the exact timeline is still unclear.