Hamas-led militants yesterday released three male Israeli hostages, and Israeli forces began releasing hundreds of prisoners in return, in the latest indication that a fragile ceasefire that has paused fighting in the Gaza Strip but had teetered over the past few days is holding.
Militants in the southern Gaza Strip paraded the three hostages — Iair Horn, 46, a dual citizen of Israel and Argentina; American-Israeli Sagui Dekel Chen, 36; and Russian-Israeli Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov, 29 — before a crowd before releasing them.
All had been abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community that was hard-hit in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. They appeared pale and worn, but seemed in better physical condition than the three men released on Saturday last week, who had emerged emaciated from 16 months of captivity.
Photo: AFP
The truce that began nearly four weeks ago had been jeopardized over the past few days by a tense dispute that threatened to renew the fighting.
US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to remove more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and settle them elsewhere in the region has cast even more doubt on the future of the ceasefire.
However, Hamas on Thursday said it would move ahead with the release of more hostages after talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials.
Photo: Reuters
The group said the mediators had pledged to “remove all hurdles” to ensure Israel would allow more tents, medical supplies and other essentials into Gaza.
As with previous exchanges, the hostage release was heavily choreographed, with the captives made to walk onto a stage and speak into microphones before the crowd. Dozens of masked, armed Hamas fighters lined up near the stage festooned with Palestinian flags and banners of militant factions.
In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, a huge cheer went up as the hostages were transferred to the Red Cross.
“Iair, Sagui and Sasha are on their way home,” an announcer said.
In return for the hostages’ release, Israel began releasing 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including 36 serving life sentences over deadly attacks. A bus carrying the first released prisoners arrived in the occupied West Bank town of Beitunia and were greeted by a cheering crowd of relatives and supporters.
Some appeared gaunt, and the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said four were immediately taken for medical treatment.
It is the sixth swap since the ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19. Before yesterday, 21 hostages and more than 730 Palestinian prisoners were freed during the first phase of the truce.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
RSS