Israeli Hostages Reunited and Thai Captives Released in Gaza as Part of Ceasefire Deal with 110 Palestinian Prisoners to be Freed

Three more Israeli soldiers have been freed by Hamas in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal that will see the return of 110 Palestinian prisoners.  

Agam Berger, now 20, was spotted on live TV standing on a stage in between two militants, donning balaclavas and sunglasses, in northern Gaza.

The young soldier is the first of three Israeli hostages due to be released today, with Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Moses, 80, expected to be freed later this morning.

The freed Israeli gave a small smile and wave with her certificate in hand, before she was led off the platform to an awaiting Red Cross vehicle.

Along with Berger, five Thai nationals will also be released under the hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, but their names have not yet been confirmed.

As part of the deal, Israel will later release 110 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, Hamas has confirmed.

Cheers echoed through the onlooking crowds as people gathered to watch live footage of Berger’s release on a large screen in Jabalia.

Some were even heard chanting her name as she stepped off the stage and into the white van. 

Israeli officials say they have received confirmation from the Red Cross that one hostage has been handed over.

‘The returning hostage has just been transferred to IDF and ISA forces in the Gaza Strip. 

‘The returning hostage is currently being accompanied by IDF special forces and ISA [Israeli Security Agency] forces on her return to Israeli territory, where she will undergo an initial medical assessment,’ the Israeli military said.

‘The commanders and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces salute and embrace the returning hostage as she makes her way home to the State of Israel.’

At around 8:45am, the IDF confirmed Berger had crossed into Israeli territory.

‘The returning hostage is currently on her way to an initial reception point in southern Israel, where she will be reunited with her parents,’ the military said.

Also commenting on the long-awaited release, the office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: ‘The Israeli government embraces Agam Berger, an Israel Defense Forces soldier.’

It says the ‘government, together with all security agencies, will accompany her and her family’.

The statement ends by saying the ‘Israeli government is committed to the return of all abducted and missing persons’.

But images of Berger’s release have made their rounds on social media and viewers are slamming the Palestinian military group for giving the hostages ‘goody bags’ along with their certificate.

The 20-year-old can be seen walking across the stage with a brown paper bag in her hand, which social media users have dubbed ‘gift bags’.

One X/Twitter user commented beneath an image of Berger: ‘The fact they give them a certificate and gift bag is so sick and twisted’.

Another said: ‘What are those “souvenir bags”? Giving a Hamas gift bag to a released hostage shows how sick those guys are’. 

Berger was kidnapped and taken hostage by Hamas militants during their initial incursion in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, when she was just 19-years-old.

The soldier is the last member of an all-female unarmed military unit, known in Hebrew as Tatzpitaniyot, to remain in Gaza.

Seven women from the unit, tasked with observing Gaza on surveillance footage, were taken hostage from the Nahal Oz military base.

One was killed in Gaza, another rescued, and four released under the ceasefire deal.

Berger’s family said they were ‘overjoyed and moved’ by the return of the four other female soldiers on Saturday, while they continued to ‘eagerly await embracing Agam’.

In Israel, people cheered, clapped and whistled at a square in Tel Aviv where supporters of the hostages watched Berger’s handover on big screens next to a large clock that’s counted the days the hostages have been in captivity.

Some held signs saying: ‘Agam we’re waiting for you at home.’

A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas’ attack. 

Twenty-three Thais were among more than 100 hostages released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023.

Israel says eight Thais remain in captivity, two of whom are believed to be dead. 

Of the people set to be released from prisons in Israel, 30 are serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis. 

Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent former militant leader and theater director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 before being rearrested days later, is also among those set to be released.

Israel said Yehoud was supposed to have been freed Saturday and delayed the opening of crossings to northern Gaza when she was not.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the ceasefire after a year of tough negotiations, resolved the dispute with an agreement that Yehoud would be released Thursday. 

Another three hostages, all men, are set to be freed Saturday along with dozens more Palestinian prisoners.

On Monday, Israel began allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, the most heavily destroyed part of the territory, and hundreds of thousands streamed back. 

Many found only mounds of rubble where their homes had been.

In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is set to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children, older adults and sick or wounded men, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. 

Israel says Hamas has confirmed that eight of the hostages to be released in this phase are dead.

Palestinians have cheered the release of the prisoners, who they widely see as heroes who have sacrificed for the cause of ending Israel’s decades-long occupation of lands they want for a future state.

Israeli forces have meanwhile pulled back from most of Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return to what remains of their homes and humanitarian groups to surge assistance.

The deal calls for Israel and Hamas to negotiate a second phase in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages and the ceasefire would continue indefinitely. 

The war could resume in early March if an agreement is not reached.

Israel says it is still committed to destroying Hamas, even after the militant group reasserted its rule over Gaza within hours of the truce. 

A key far-right partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is already calling for the war to resume after the ceasefire’s first phase.

Hamas says it won’t release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas started the war when it sent thousands of fighters storming into Israel. 

The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250.

Israel’s ensuing air and ground war among the deadliest and most destructive in decades. 

More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were militants.

The Israeli military says it killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence, and that it went to great lengths to try to spare civilians. 

It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in dense residential neighborhoods and put military infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.

The Israeli offensive has transformed entire neighborhoods into mounds of gray rubble, and it’s unclear how or when anything will be rebuilt. 

Around 90 per cent of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, with hundreds of thousands of people living in squalid tent camps or shuttered schools.