The swap comes after President Donald Trump proposed clearing out the Gaza Strip of its inhabitants and for the United States to take over the Palestinian territory — a plan that has sparked global uproar and been rejected by Hamas.
Dozens of armed Hamas fighters formed a cordon around an open area in the city of Deir el-Balah early Saturday, apparently to control crowds eager to watch the hostage release.
As with past exchanges, a stage was erected for the occasion, festooned with a banner bearing images of destroyed Israeli armoured vehicles and a dejected-looking Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister.
In Tel Aviv’s “Hostages Square”, where hundreds were expected later to watch the handover, a huge screen counted down the days, hours, minutes and seconds since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack, when the hostages were first seized.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed to AFP on Friday that it had received a list of the three hostages due to be released after Hamas first published their names.
They are Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami.
Sharabi, 52, was at his home in kibbutz Beeri with his British-born wife and their two daughters when Hamas stormed it.
The armed men shot their dog, before locking the family in their safe room and setting it on fire. The bodies of his wife and two daughters were later identified.
Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival, where gunmen murdered his wife. Ben Ami, who has dual Israeli-German citizenship, turned 56 in captivity.
Former hostage Yarden Bibas, who was freed last week by Hamas militants in Gaza, on Friday urged Netanyahu to help bring back his wife and two children from the Palestinian territory.
