Region
Six hostages, 602 Palestinians to be freed in Gaza swap Saturday
February 21, 2025 | 07:30 PM
Israel will free 602 inmates from jails Saturday as part of a hostage-prisoner swap with Hamas under an ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group.Among those released, 445 are people from Gaza who were arrested after Oct 7, 2023, 60 are serving long sentences, 50 are serving life sentences and 47 were re-arrested after being freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange, Amani Sarahneh, spokeswoman for the NGO, told AFP Friday.Sarahneh added that 108 of the prisoners to be released Saturday would be deported outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories.Meanwhile, Hamas announced Friday that it will release six Israeli hostages Saturday as part of the 7th batch in the ongoing prisoner exchange deal with Israel.Hamas said that the six Israeli prisoners set to be released are Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham Al-Sayed.On January 19, a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel came into effect. The first phase of this agreement will last for 42 days, during which negotiations for the second and third phases will be conducted with Qatari and Egyptian mediation, supported by the US.
February 21, 2025 | 07:30 PM