Closing summary
It is approaching 6pm in Gaza and Israel. This blog will be closing shortly. You can read Peter Beaumont’s latest piece here:
And his analysis here:
Here is a summary of today’s latest developments:
Scores of sick and injured Palestinians, with wounded members of Hamas expected to be among them, have been allowed to cross into Egypt as the key Rafah border crossing was reopened after the release of three more Israeli male civilian hostages. The opening of the Rafah border crossing, which was closed by Israeli forces nine months ago, took place as part of the continuing ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Three male Israeli civilian held hostage in Gaza have been released as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Hamas handed the first two men, Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon, over to the Red Cross in southern Gaza on Saturday morning, before they made their over to the Israeli military a short while later. Hamas handed over US-Israeli dual national Keith Siegel, the last of the three hostages released on Saturday by the group, to the Red Cross at Gaza port.
A total of 183 prisoners and detainees, almost all Palestinians except for one Egyptian, were released by Israel on Saturday. Seven Palestinians serving life sentences and an Egyptian were deported to Egypt, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. Of the remainder, 150 were sent to Gaza and 25 were released in occupied West Bank. The Guardian understands that among the 183 released today, 72 have been convicted in the Israeli courts, while the remaining 111 are largely Palestinians from Gaza who had been detained without trial after the events of 7 October 2023.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on Saturday it had safely transferred three hostages out of Gaza to Israel, and 175 Palestinian detainees from Israeli detention centres to Gaza and the West Bank. The charity said that in total, 183 detainees were released today.
The Gaza health ministry in said 50 Palestinian patients went through the Rafah crossing to Egypt on Saturday. Egyptian state-linked channel Al-Qahera News showed footage of the first of 50 evacuees and 53 companions, including a child with an autoimmune disease, crossing the border into Egypt to receive treatment.
French president Emmanuel Macron shared his joy on Saturday over the release of Franco-Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon. Macron said on X he shared the “relief and joy” of Kalderon’s family and friends.
Arab foreign ministers on Saturday rejected the transfer of Palestinians from their land “under any circumstances or justifications”, presenting a unified stance against US president Donald Trump’s call for Egypt and Jordan to take in residents of the Gaza Strip. In a joint statement after a meeting in Cairo, the foreign ministers and officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League said they were looking forward to working with Trump’s administration to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, based on a two-state solution.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the release of three hostages by Hamas on Saturday “brings a ray of light” after more than 15 months of captivity in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian prisoners and detainees released today arrived at medical facilities in Gaza “to receive treatment for the abuse and torture that they were subjected to” in Israeli prisons, Hamas said. Hamas said the state of those freed “confirms the ugliness of what the prisoners are subjected to in the jails. These horrific and ongoing violations against our heroic prisoners constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity”. The group added a plea to the international community, including the UN, to hold the perpetrators accountable.
Israel on Saturday demanded information from mediators who brokered a ceasefire in Gaza over the fate of three family members of freed hostage Yarden Bibas. “The Bibas family … has been living in constant fear for their lives for a long time … We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators,” said Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, in a statement, referring to Bibas’s wife and two children who remain in Gaza.
Updated
A total of 183 prisoners and detainees, almost all Palestinians except for one Egyptian, were released by Israel on Saturday.
Seven Palestinians serving life sentences and an Egyptian were deported to Egypt, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. Of the remainder, 150 were sent to Gaza and 25 were released in occupied West Bank, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Guardian understands that among the 183 released today 72 have been convicted in the Israeli courts, while the remaining 111 are largely Palestinians from Gaza who had been detained without trial after the events of 7 October 2023.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires today:
The Gaza health ministry said 50 Palestinian patients, including 30 children with cancer, went through the Rafah crossing to Egypt on Saturday as the key gateway reopened as part of a ceasefire deal.
Egyptian state-linked channel Al-Qahera News showed footage of the first of 50 evacuees, including a child with an autoimmune disease, and their 53 companions crossing the border into Egypt to receive treatment.
“From the medical files, 50 were approved by Egypt. We hope for this number to increase,” said Muhammad Zaqout, the director of Gaza hospitals, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). “We now have 6,000 cases ready to be transferred, and more than 12,000 cases that are in dire need of treatment.”
The group that crossed via Rafah on Saturday included the 30 child cancer patients, 19 injured men and one injured woman, along with their companions, Zaqout said.
The Rafah crossing had been closed since Israel seized its Palestinian side in May. The crossing was one of the main entry points into the Palestinian territory and a vital conduit for aid.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Friday that the 27-member bloc had deployed a monitoring mission at the Rafah crossing “at the request of the Palestinians and the Israelis”. “It will support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care,” she wrote on X.
Here’s a map showing the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, where sick and injured Palestinians have been allowed to cross to receive medical treatment.
Scores of sick and injured Palestinians, with wounded members of Hamas expected to be among them, have been allowed to cross into Egypt as the key Rafah border crossing was reopened after the release of three more Israeli male civilian hostages.
The opening of the Rafah border crossing, which was closed by Israeli forces nine months ago, took place as part of the continuing ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Egyptian television showed a Palestinian Red Cross ambulance pulling up to the crossing gate, and several children brought out on stretchers and transferred to ambulances on the Egyptian side, the first of an estimated 50 children expected to cross on Saturday.
Updated
Three more Israeli civilian male hostages held in Gaza have been released as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas handed the first two men over to the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, who were taken to the Israeli military a short while later. Seventeen of the 33 hostages due for release in the first stage of the ceasefire have now been freed in exchange for 400 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Updated
Israel is demanding information from the mediators who brokered the ceasefire deal over the fate of Shir, Ariel and Kfir Bibas after the release of Yarden Bibas.
“The Bibas family… has been living in constant fear for their lives for a long time… We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators,” says Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, via The Times of Israel.
Bibas, 35, was kidnapped separately from his wife and children, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, who were all taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Hamas says that Shiri and the two boys were killed by an Israeli airstrike.
The Hostages Families Forum said on Friday: “We have both the sacred duty and moral right to bring all our brothers and sisters home.
“We will not give up or stop at any stage until all hostages return home, down to the last one.”
Updated
The Palestinian prisoners and detainees released today are at medical facilities in Gaza “to receive treatment for the abuse and torture that they were subjected to” in Israeli prisons, Hamas has said.
Hamas said the state of those freed “confirms the ugliness of what the prisoners are subjected to in the jails. These horrific and ongoing violations against our heroic prisoners constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Hamas added a plea to the international community, including the UN, to hold the perpetrators accountable.
Updated
On Saturday, a total of 183 prisoners and detainees, almost all Palestinians except for one Egyptian, were released by Israel on Saturday. Here are some images coming in via the newswires:
Updated
ICRC confirms completion of the fourth phase of release operations
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Saturday it had safely transferred three hostages out of Gaza to Israel, and 175 Palestinian detainees from Israeli detention centres to Gaza and the West Bank. The charity said that in total, 183 detainees were released today.
In a statement, the ICRC said:
This marks the completion of the fourth phase of release operations carried out by the ICRC in the last two weeks, facilitating the return of 18 hostages and 583 Palestinian detainees.
Prior to today’s operation, the ICRC reminded the parties of their responsibility to ensure transfers are carried out safely and with dignity. The details of the operation, including who would be released and when, were agreed by the parties to the conflict.
While the ICRC was not involved in the negotiations, it has acted as a humanitarian intermediary to facilitate the agreement so that people can be return home safely. Specialised ICRC staff, including doctors, are on hand to provide support if needed. The ICRC also conducts pre-departure interviews with detainees to assess their health and fitness for travel.
As more families anxiously await news of their loved ones, the ICRC continues to call for the continued implementation of the agreement to allow more families to be reunited. The ICRC remains prepared to facilitate further release operations in the coming weeks, and to continue to bring critically needed aid into Gaza.”
Updated
Israel on Saturday demanded information from mediators who brokered a ceasefire in Gaza over the fate of three family members of freed hostage Yarden Bibas, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The Bibas family … has been living in constant fear for their lives for a long time … We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators,” said Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, in a statement, referring to Bibas’s wife and two children who remain in Gaza.
Arab foreign ministers reject transferring out Palestinians 'under any circumstances'
Arab foreign ministers on Saturday rejected the transfer of Palestinians from their land “under any circumstances or justifications”, presenting a unified stance against US president Donald Trump’s call for Egypt and Jordan to take in residents of the Gaza Strip.
Reuters reports that in a joint statement after a meeting in Cairo, the foreign ministers and officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League said they were looking forward to working with Trump’s administration to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, based on a two-state solution.
Updated
One of the most prominent Palestinians being released on Saturday is aid worker Mohammed el-Halabi, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a high-profile case that drew criticism from rights groups, reports the Associated Press (AP).
El-Halabi had worked as the Palestinian manager of the Gaza branch of World Vision, a leading Christian aid organisation. He was arrested in 2016 and accused of diverting tens of millions of dollars to Hamas. Both el-Halabi, 47, and World Vision vigorously denied the allegations and independent investigations found no proof of wrongdoing.
Rights groups say el-Halabi was denied a fair and transparent trial, as he and World Vision had no chance to review the evidence against them.
Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Palestinian Authority and Arab League have issued a join statement in which they stress the “rejection of transfer of Palestinians outside their land under any circumstances”, reports Reuters.
More details soon …
Three buses with freed Palestinians arrive in Gaza’s Khan Younis
Three buses carrying Palestinian prisoners and detainees released by Israel as part of a ceasefire deal arrived in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Saturday, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent reported.
Dressed in grey prison uniforms, they were greeted by hundreds of Palestinians who gathered around the buses as they approached the city’s European hospital.
Gaza health ministry says 50 patients left through Rafah crossing to Egypt
The Gaza health ministry in said 50 Palestinian patients went through the Rafah crossing to Egypt on Saturday, as the key gateway reopened as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Egyptian state-linked channel Al-Qahera News showed footage of the first of 50 evacuees and 53 companions, including a child with an autoimmune disease, crossing the border into Egypt to receive treatment.
Egyptian television showed a Palestinian Red Cross ambulance pulling up to the Rafah border crossing gate, and several children were brought out on stretchers and transferred to ambulances on the Egyptian side.
It is worth noting that some of the Palestinians being released today were held in administrative detention, which allows for the preemptive arrest of individuals based on undisclosed evidence.
The Guardian understands that among the 183 prisoners and detainees, almost all Palestinians except for one Egyptian, being released today, 72 have been convicted in the Israeli courts, including 14 serving life sentences, while the remaining 111 are largely Palestinians from Gaza who had been detained without trial after the events of 7 October 2023.
According to figures published by the Israeli NGO HaMoked, as of January 2025 there were 10,221 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. About 3,376 of them are held under administrative detention, while 1,886 are classified as unlawful combatants. The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli government say the measures comply with international law.
Updated
The Gaza health ministry says 50 Palestinian patients have left through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt.
More details soon …
Rafah border crossing reopens for first time since May to allow Palestinian patients into Egypt
The Rafah border crossing, the main entry and exit point for the Palestinian territory, reopened on Saturday for the first time since May 2024 to allow Palestinian patients to cross over from Gaza to Egypt to receive medical treatment, live television footage showed, according to Reuters.
An Agence France-Press (AFP) correspondent reported that the bus had reached Beitunia near Ramallah where Palestinian prisoners and detainees disembarked and were greeted by cheering crowds of relatives.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming in today via the newswires:
Updated
Buses carrying released Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons arrive in West Bank's Ramallah
Buses carrying released Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons arrived on Saturday in West Bank’s Ramallah, live television footage showed, according to Reuters.
An Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter said they had earlier seen a bus carrying Palestinian prisoners and detainees leaving Ofer prison.
Updated
All three Israeli hostages back in Israel confirms military
Israel’s military has confirmed that all three freed Israeli hostages are now back in Israel.
Explainer: What is the Rafah crossing?
The Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt is the only one of the Gaza crossing points that does not communicate with Israel. While it was intended to be a significant crossing, since the Hamas takeover in 2007 it has only intermittently been open to Palestinians, most notably during the brief period when the Muslim Brotherhood governed Egypt until 2013.
Israel and Egypt’s joint blockade of Gaza under Hamas has made the crossing highly politically sensitive in Cairo – a situation that was exacerbated by an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai, which led to Egypt imposing controls on who was allowed to travel to towns and cities close to the Rafah crossing, not least the city of Arish.
Rafah, once a smuggling hub, is split between Egyptian Rafah and Palestinian Rafah, with the border running through it. Egypt’s deliberate flooding of the border area in 2015 was designed to close smuggling tunnels that connected the two, which at one time allowed people and goods to pass from Gaza to Egypt.
The Israeli military says the freed Israeli-American hostage, Keith Siegel, is in army custody.
Saturday’s handover saw none of the chaotic scenes that overshadowed an earlier transfer on Thursday, when Hamas guards struggled to shield hostages from a surging crowd in Gaza, reports Reuters.
But it was once again an occasion for a show of force by uniformed Hamas fighters who paraded in the area where the handovers took place in a sign of their re-established dominance in Gaza despite the heavy losses suffered in the war.
Israel is expected to transfer 182 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, Hamas said.
An Israeli campaign group said the release of three hostages by Hamas on Saturday “brings a ray of light” after more than 15 months of captivity in the Gaza Strip.
“Their release today brings a ray of light in the darkness, offering hope and demonstrating the triumph of the human spirit,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement after captives Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel and Ofer Kalderon were freed, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Palestinian patients to cross over to Egypt via newly reopened Rafah crossing, says WHO
At the newly reopened Rafah crossing on the southern border, the first Palestinian patients to be allowed to leave Gaza, including children suffering from cancer and heart conditions, were expected to cross over to Egypt in a bus provided by the World Health Organization, reports Reuters.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:
Macron shares 'joy' of Gaza hostage Ofer Kalderon’s release
French president Emmanuel Macron shared his joy on Saturday over the release of Franco-Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon “after 483 days of unimaginable hell” as a captive held in Gaza, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Macron said on X he shared the “relief and joy” of Kalderon’s family and friends. The 54-year-old was abducted on 7 October 2023 from the Nir Oz kibbutz along with his son and daughter.
Hamas hands over Israeli hostage Siegel to Red Cross at Gaza port
Hamas handed over US-Israeli dual national Keith Siegel, the last of the three hostages released on Saturday by the group, to the Red Cross at Gaza port, live television footage showed.
Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli dual national, were handed over by Hamas earlier on Saturday to a Red Cross official in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, in the latest stage of a phased exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and deatinees.
Updated
Red Cross vehicles have been seen on live TV arriving ahead of the expected handover of the third Israeli hostage, reports Reuters.
More details soon …
Updated
In Israel, north of Tel Aviv, the family of released hostage Ofer Kalderon hugged and cheered as they saw the images of him climbing on to the stage in Khan Younis and being transferred to the Red Cross.
“Ofer is coming home!” they said, arms lifted to the sky in Kfar Saba.
Associated Press also reports that Kalderon’s two children, Erez and Sahar, were abducted alongside him and released during a ceasefire in November 2023. Family members said they weren’t able to recover from their ordeal until their father returned.
“We are sorry it took so long, Ofer,” said Eyal Kalderon.
We will soon be a whole family again. We hope other families will soon feel like this, until the last family.
Updated
Our full report from Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem on this morning’s hostage releases is here with all the key developments.
More pictures have arrived of the Hamas handover of Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas to the Red Cross in southern Gaza in the fourth release of the current truce.
Updated
Two freed hostages back on Israeli soil – military
The Israeli military said the two freed hostages had now crossed into Israeli territory after they were released by Hamas on Saturday.
“A short while ago, the returning civilian hostages, Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas, crossed the border into Israeli territory” accompanied by Israeli forces, AFP quoted the military as saying in a statement.
Here are images coming in of people in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square watching a screen broadcasting news footage of this morning’s hostage releases.
Two male civilian hostages released - one more due shortly
The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont is reporting on these latest hostage releases.
Three more Israelis – all male civilian hostages – were being released on Saturday to Israel as part of the continuing ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas handed the first two hostages over to the Red Cross in the strip’s south on Saturday morning shortly before they were received by the Israeli military a short while later.
In return Palestinian authorities say Israel has agreed to release dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, in the fourth round of exchanges during the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The first two to be released, including Yarden Bibas, the father of a young family and whose wife and children have become poignant symbols of the hostage crisis, remain unaccounted for amid “grave concerns” for their wellbeing.
Bibas, 35, and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon, 54, were transferred to the Red Cross in what appeared to be a more orderly handover than the chaotic scenes that accompanied a previous release this week, when released Israelis were jostled by a noisy crush.
As they were released a second Red Cross convoy was en route to pick up Israel-American Keith Siegel from a second location.
Updated
The Israeli military has confirmed it has received Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas, Reuters is reporting.
Photos are arriving of Bibas being taken on to a stage by Hamas fighters in Khan Younis before being handed over to the Red Cross.
Updated
The Israeli military says two hostages are now in army custody, Agence France-Presse is reporting.
Updated
Here are more images of the apparent release of hostage Ofer Kalderon minutes ago.
Updated
Hamas has also handed over the Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas to the Red Cross in southern Gaza, live TV footage is reported as showing.
Bibas, 35, is the father of the two youngest hostages – baby Kfir, aged nine months old when he was kidnapped by Hamas-led gunmen on 7 October 2023, and Ariel, then aged four.
As reported earlier, Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother Shiri, who was taken at the same time, were killed in an Israeli airstrike. There has been no word on them since.
Images are coming through of the reported release of French-Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon, 54.
Updated
Hamas has handed over the French-Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon to the Red Cross, Agence France-Presse is reporting.
Updated
Live TV footage is showing Red Cross vehicles arriving in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis ahead of Saturday’s expected hostage handover by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
It appears that the process has begun, with armed Hamas militants near the vehicles and around a stage that has been set up, in similar scenes to previous hostage releases.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis – it’s 8.40am in Tel Aviv and Gaza City and here’s a snapshot of the latest news.
Hamas is expected to hand over three Israelis on Saturday in the latest exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees under the current ceasefire.
The three Israelis include Yarden Bibas, the 35-year-old father of the two youngest hostages – baby Kfir, aged nine months old when he was kidnapped by Hamas-led gunmen on 7 October 2023, and Ariel, then aged four.
The Palestinian militant group said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother Shiri, who was taken at the same time, were killed in an Israeli airstrike. There has been no word on them since, Reuters reports.
US-Israeli dual national Keith Siegel, 65, and French-Israeli dual national Ofer Kalderon, 54, would also be part of the exchange for 182 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, Hamas said.
Saturday is also expected to see the first Palestinians travelling from Gaza to Egypt through the newly reopened Rafah border crossing. It will be opened initially for 50 injured militants and 50 wounded civilians, along with the people escorting them, with a further 100 people probably allowed through on humanitarian grounds, according to Reuters.
In other developments:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be in Washington on Tuesday for a working meeting with US president Donald Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday. Trump and Netanyahu are expected to meet twice in Washington that day, once for a work meeting and then for an informal dinner with their spouses, US news site Axios reported, citing an unidentified source.
Hundreds of people gathered on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags to protest against Trump’s suggestion that the people of Gaza should be moved into Egypt and Jordan. The US president has repeated the proposal, saying when asked how he would pressure Egypt and Jordan to take so many people: “We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said its humanitarian work across the occupied territories and Gaza was still ongoing on Friday despite an Israeli ban that took effect a day before and what it described as hostility towards its staff. “We continue to provide services,” Juliette Touma, Unrwa’s director of communications, said in Geneva. “In Gaza, Unrwa continues to be the backbone of the international humanitarian response.”
Britain, France and Germany reiterated their “grave concern” about the Israeli ban on Unrwa, saying in a joint statement: “We urge the government of Israel to work with international partners, including the UN, to ensure continuity of operations.”
The health needs in Gaza are “immense” and there is “large-scale devastation of the health system”, the World Health Organisation has said.
The European Union has restarted its civilian mission at the Rafah crossing, with the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, saying the mission would “support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care”.
Fifteen of the 33 hostages due for release in the first stage of the ceasefire have so far been released in exchange for 400 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Negotiations are due to start by Tuesday on agreements for the release of more than 60 remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in a second phase of the deal.
UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken by phone with Emily Damari, a freed British-Israeli hostage who was released on 19 January after spending 471 days in captivity.
Updated
