Three more hostages due to be freed on Saturday amid uncertainty over deal’s future
Hamas supposed to say Friday which captives it will release; Jerusalem reportedly dispatching negotiators to Doha over weekend for talks on rest of 1st phase, but not 2nd stage
Hamas is expected to release a fifth batch of Israeli captives on Saturday as part of the hostage release and ceasefire deal, as US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza fueled further uncertainty on whether the multiphase agreement will hold up.
A list of the three hostages to be released is expected in Israel by 4 p.m. on Friday.
According to Channel 12 news, Israel is pressuring mediators to secure the release of Shiri Bibas and her young sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 2. Hamas was to release living women and children first under the deal, and Israel has said it has “grave concern” for their lives. The father, Yarden Bibas, was released last Saturday.
A Hamas official cited by the network said the terror group would see how Trump’s plan to “take over” the Gaza Strip progresses before deciding on the fate of the deal. According to the network, the terror group is unlikely to thwart the rest of the first phase, including Saturday’s expected hostage release.
On Thursday, the government approved a list of Palestinian prisoners to be released in return for the hostages. Three prisoners were removed from the list at the last minute, including Mahmoud Atallah, a terror convict accused of raping a prison guard, who was replaced with an identically named security prisoner, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper.
In total, Israel has said it would release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners — including 737 serving life terms for dozens of murders — in return for 33 Israeli hostages during the deal’s first phase.
So far, 13 Israelis have been released, along with five Thai hostages freed outside the framework of the deal.
Though talks for the second phase were supposed to commence Monday, Netanyahu has pushed off sending a negotiating team, reportedly until he returns from Washington next week.
A working-level negotiating team, led by the outgoing Shin Bet deputy director — known by his Hebrew initial “Mem” — is expected in Doha over the weekend, but is empowered to discuss only the first phase, not the second, according to Channel 12. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s spokesman denied reports that the premier presented in Washington a plan to end the fighting in Gaza — a sine qua non for the second stage, but a red line for the right flank of Netanyahu’s coalition.
The delay in talks on the second phase has deeply worried the families of male hostages who are not set to be released until phases two and three.
Moshe Or, brother of hostage Avinatan Or, told Channel 12 that “there is a feeling that the second phase is disintegrating. [People are] starting to talk about all sorts of other things, flattening Gaza, moving the Palestinians… In our view it’s unacceptable and scary that [they’re] starting to talk that way and forget about [the hostages].”
Avinatan marked his 32nd birthday on Thursday. His girlfirend Noa Argamani, who was rescued from Hamas captivity in June, wrote on Instagram that she was “doing everything to get you back, to get to the second phase of the deal so you’re not left behind.”
Argamani herself is currently in Washington with a delegation of hostage families determined to ensure that the deal proceeds to its second phase.
On Thursday, Trump honored her in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, saying she “showed unwavering strength and courage and faith as she endured the unendurable.”
“By the grace of God, she was rescued by the Israel Defense Forces and now she’s come back to pray with us this morning,” said Trump.
“As president, I will not rest until every remaining hostage has been returned to their families,” he vowed.
According to Channel 12, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel introduced Argamani and other hostages at the event to Massad Boulos, Trump’s Middle East envoy and the father-in-law of Tiffany Trump, the US president’s daughter.
Boulos was said to have reiterated to the hostage delegation the Trump administration’s commitment to bringing the captives home, and tell them he planned to visit Israel in the coming months.
Hamas took 251 hostages on October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Seventy-six of the hostages abducted on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 18 hostages — civilians, soldiers, and Thai nationals — during the ceasefire that began in January.
The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
