Who are the Israelis released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire in Gaza?

Who are the Israelis released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire in Gaza?
A mural of female Israeli soldiers who were abducted and brought to Gaza is displayed in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 29 January 2025
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Who are the Israelis released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire in Gaza?

Who are the Israelis released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire in Gaza?
  • The truce and release of hostages has sparked both hope and fear among Israelis

JERUSALEM: Hamas released four young female Israeli soldiers on Saturday after more than 15 months in captivity. The release of the four comes days into a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and is part of a long and uncertain process aimed at eventually ending the war.
Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag were captured when Hamas-led militants overran the Nahal Oz military base during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war, killing over 60 soldiers there.
A fifth female soldier in their unit, Agam Berger, 20, was abducted with them but not included in the release. Video of the abduction of the five female soldiers, who had worked as spotters monitoring threats along the border, was widely circulated.
Israel and Hamas have agreed in the ceasefire’s first phase to a gradual release of 33 hostages in Gaza, in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Three hostages were released previously during this truce in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The truce and release of hostages has sparked both hope and fear among Israelis. Many worry that the ceasefire could collapse before all the hostages return, or that those released will arrive in poor health. Others worry that the number of captives who have died is higher than expected.
Some 250 people were kidnapped during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered 15 months of war. More than 90 hostages remain in Gaza, although at least a third are believed to be dead. The others were released, rescued, or their bodies were recovered.
Israel’s military campaign has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says more than half were women or children.
Here’s a look at the hostages released so far:
Four hostages, all female soldiers were released on Saturday.
Liri Albag, 19
Liri Albag was featured in a video Hamas released in early January, filmed under duress. Her family said the video was “difficult to watch” because of Albag’s clear emotional distress. They were particularly active in the protest movement pushing for a deal with Hamas to bring the hostages home.
“Liri, if you’re hearing us, tell the others that all the families are moving heaven and earth and want their children home, and we will fight until all hostages are returned,” her father said in a statement after the video was released.
Karina Ariev, 20
Just before Karina Ariev was kidnapped, she she sent a message to her family, saying: “If I don’t live, take care of mom and dad all their lives. Don’t give up, live,” according to Israeli media. Her family said she loves to cook, sing, dance and write poetry.
In January 2024, she was featured in a video along with Gilboa and Doron Steinbrecher, who was released last weekend.
Daniella Gilboa, 20
After the kidnapping, her parents changed her name from Danielle to Daniella, a Jewish tradition that is believed to bring God’s protection.
In video of the kidnapping, Gilboa seems to have a foot injury as she is forced into the jeep that took her to Gaza.
Gilboa, from Petah Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv, played piano and studied music in high school. She dreams of being a singer, according to Israeli media.
Naama Levy, 20
The footage from Levy’s kidnapping, in which she is wearing gray sweatpants covered in blood, was shown around the world.
Levy is a triathlete. When she was younger, she participated in the “Hands of Peace” delegation, which brings together Americans, Israelis and Palestinians to work on coexistence.
From footage of the kidnappings, it seems that Levy was taken separately from the other lookout soldiers, leading her family to worry she was in captivity alone for much of the time.
The following three hostages were released on Jan. 19, the first day of the ceasefire:
Romi Gonen, 24
Romi Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That morning, Gonen’s mother, Merav, and her eldest daughter spent nearly five hours speaking to Gonen as militants marauded through the festival grounds. Gonen told her family that roads clogged with abandoned cars made escape impossible and that she would seek shelter in some bushes.
Over the past 15 months, Merav Gonen has been one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing nearly daily on Israeli news programs and traveling abroad on missions.
Emily Damari, 28
Emily Damari is a British-Israeli citizen kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village hit hard by Hamas’ assault. She lived in a small apartment in a neighborhood for young adults, the closest part of the kibbutz to Gaza. Militants broke through the border fence of the kibbutz and ransacked the neighborhood.
Damari’s mother, Mandy, said she loves music, traveling, soccer, good food, karaoke and hats. Kibbutz Kfar Aza said that Damari was often the “glue that held her close-knit friend group together” and she was always organizing gatherings of friends around the best barbecue corner in the entire kibbutz.
Doron Steinbrecher, 31
Doron Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse who loves animals, and a neighbor to Damari in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Steinbrecher holds both Israeli and Romanian citizenship.
Steinbrecher was featured in a video released by Hamas on Jan. 26, 2024, along with two female Israeli soldiers. Her brother said the video gave them hope that she was alive but sparked concern because she looked tired, weak and gaunt.


Morocco overturns deportation Uyghur man wanted in China

Morocco overturns deportation Uyghur man wanted in China
Updated 21 February 2025
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Morocco overturns deportation Uyghur man wanted in China

Morocco overturns deportation Uyghur man wanted in China
  • Yidiresi Aishan has been detained in the North African kingdom since 2021
  • A Rabat court “ruled in favor of his release, annulling the deportation order to China,” his lawyer, Miloud Kandil, said

RABAT: A Moroccan court overturned on Thursday a decision to deport a member of China’s Uyghur Muslim minority wanted by Beijing, ordering his release from prison, according to his lawyer.
Yidiresi Aishan has been detained in the North African kingdom since 2021, when he arrived in Casablanca from Turkiye with an Interpol arrest warrant against him though it was later rescinded.
That same year, Morocco agreed to extradite him to China, where he has been wanted by the authorities for alleged acts of terror.
A Rabat court “ruled in favor of his release, annulling the deportation order to China,” his lawyer, Miloud Kandil, told AFP.
He said his client, a father of three in his thirties, had left Morocco, without providing further details.
China accuses Aishan of “terrorist acts committed in 2017” belonging to a terrorist organization, allegations he denies.
In 2021, United Nations human rights experts urged Morocco to halt Aishan’s extradition, citing “the credible risk of grave violations of his human rights.”
Returning him to China could have exposed him to “arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance or torture,” the experts had said.
Beijing stands accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in its northwestern region, in a campaign that the United Nations has said may constitute “crimes against humanity.”
China vehemently denies the allegations, saying the policies have rooted out extremism in Xinjiang and brought about economic development.
Authorities have detained Uyghurs with overseas connections and confiscated their travel documents since a crackdown in the mid-2010s, according to researchers, campaigners and members of the Uyghur diaspora.


Hamas armed wing confirms it will release six Israeli hostages Saturday

Hamas armed wing confirms it will release six Israeli hostages Saturday
Updated 21 February 2025
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Hamas armed wing confirms it will release six Israeli hostages Saturday

Hamas armed wing confirms it will release six Israeli hostages Saturday
  • Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum published the names of the six hostages earlier this week
  • The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Israel will free 602 inmates from jails

GAZA CITY/ RAMALLAH: Hamas’s armed wing confirmed it will hand over Saturday six hostages held alive in the Gaza Strip as part of the ongoing ceasefire deal with Israel.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement on Friday that the release would occur as planned.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum published the names of the six hostages earlier this week, naming them as Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu.
Meanwhile, Israel will free 602 inmates from jails on Saturday as part of a hostage-prisoner swap with Hamas, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group.
Among those released, 445 are individuals from Gaza who were arrested after Hamas’ October 7 attack that sparked the war, 60 are serving long sentences, 50 are serving life sentences, and 47 were re-arrested after a 2011 prisoner exchange, Amani Sarahneh, spokeswoman for the NGO, told AFP.


South Sudan closes schools after students collapse due to extreme heat

South Sudan closes schools after students collapse due to extreme heat
Updated 21 February 2025
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South Sudan closes schools after students collapse due to extreme heat

South Sudan closes schools after students collapse due to extreme heat
  • This is the second time the country has closed schools during a heatwave in February and March
  • Civil society group says closing schools during heatwaves shows a ‘failure to prioritize the education of South Sudan’s children’

JUBA, South Sudan: South Sudan on Thursday announced the closure of all schools for two weeks due to an ongoing extreme heatwave that has caused some students to collapse.
This is the second time the country – which faces extreme effects from climate change, including flooding during the rainy season – has closed schools during a heatwave in February and March.
Deputy Education Minister Martin Tako Moi said Thursday “an average of 12 students had been collapsing in Juba city every day.”
Most schools in South Sudan have makeshift structures made with iron sheets and do not have electricity that could power cooling systems.
Environment Minister Josephine Napwon Cosmos on Thursday urged residents to stay indoors and drink water as temperatures were expected to rise as high as 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Napwon proposed that government employees “work in shifts” to avoid heat strokes.
Education workers have urged the government to consider amending the school calendar so that schools close in February and resume in April when the temperatures decline.
Abraham Kuol Nyuon, the dean of the Graduate College at the University of Juba, told The Associated Press that the calendar should be localized based on the weather in the 10 states.
A civil society group, Integrity South Sudan, blamed the government for a lack of proper planning and contingency plans, saying that closing schools during heatwaves shows a “failure to prioritize the education of South Sudan’s children.”
The country’s health system is fragile due to political instability. Nearly 400,000 people were killed between 2013 and 2018 when a peace agreement was signed by President Salva Kiir and his rival-turned-deputy, Riek Machar.
South Sudan’s elections, scheduled for last year, were postponed for two years due to a lack of funds.
The country has been facing an economic crisis due to an interruption of oil exports after a major pipeline was raptured in neighboring war-torn Sudan. The pipeline was later repaired.


Hamas says it is investigating possible error over hostage body

Hamas says it is investigating possible error over hostage body
Updated 40 min 22 sec ago
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Hamas says it is investigating possible error over hostage body

Hamas says it is investigating possible error over hostage body
  • Benjamin Netanyahu threatens retaliation for failing to release the body of hostage Shiri Bibas
  • Hamas said separately that it would investigate the Israeli assertions and announce the results

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Hamas said on Friday it was investigating a possible error in identifying human remains handed to Israel under a ceasefire deal as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened retaliation for failing to release the body of hostage Shiri Bibas.

Hamas was due to hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons Kfir and Ariel on Thursday, along with the remains of a fourth hostage under the ceasefire deal that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month.

Four bodies were delivered and the identities of the Bibas boys and the fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, were confirmed.

But Israeli specialists said the fourth body was that of an unidentified woman and not Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her sons and her husband, Yarden, during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mingled the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians, thousands of whom were still buried in the rubble.

“We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” he said in a statement.

Hamas said separately that it would investigate the Israeli assertions and announce the results.

The failure to hand over the body and the staged public handover of the four coffins on Thursday, caused outrage in Israel and drew a threat of retaliation from Netanyahu.

“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he said in a video statement, accusing Hamas of acting “in an unspeakably cynical manner” by placing the body of a Gaza woman in the coffin instead of Bibas.

Hamas said in November 2023 that the children and their mother had been killed in an Israeli air strike and Thawabta said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children.”

But the Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children indicated that they were deliberately killed by their captors.

Netanyahu gave no details on a possible Israeli response, but the incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire agreement reached with US backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month.

Six living hostages are due for release on Saturday in exchange for 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, according to Hamas, and the start of negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire is expected in the coming days.

“Hamas must return the hostages as agreed in the ceasefire- the living and the deceased,” Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said in a statement on social media platform X. “They have to bring Shiri back, and they have to release the 6 living hostages expected tomorrow.”

As the tension over the Gaza ceasefire rose, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to intensify operations in another Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank, after a number of explosions blew up buses standing empty in their depots near Tel Aviv.

No casualties were reported but the explosions were a reminder of the campaign of suicide attacks on public transport that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.

“They make a joke of us”

Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of ceasefire violations, with Hamas threatening to delay the release of hostages over what it said was Israel’s refusal to allow housing materials and other aid into Gaza, a charge Israel denied.

“It’s like they make a joke of us,” said 75-year-old Ilana Caspi. “We are so in grief and this is even more, it’s like you make a punch again, another one and another one, it’s really terrible.”

The Red Cross told Reuters it was “concerned and unsatisfied” by the fact that the handover of the bodies had not been conducted privately and in a dignified manner.

One of the main groups representing hostage families said they were “horrified and devastated” by the news that Shiri Bibas’ body had not been returned, but called for the ceasefire to continue to bring back all the 70 hostages still in Gaza.

“Save them from this nightmare,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

Despite the outrage over Shiri Bibas, there was no indication that Israel would not take part in talks over a second phase of the ceasefire deal.

The Israel Hayom newspaper reported that Israeli negotiators were considering seeking an extension of the 42-day ceasefire, instead of moving to a second phase, which would involve talks over hard-to-resolve issues including an end to the war and the future of Hamas in Gaza.


Syria’s Christians mark a decade since a horrific Daesh attack and worry about their future

Syria’s Christians mark a decade since a horrific Daesh attack and worry about their future
Updated 21 February 2025
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Syria’s Christians mark a decade since a horrific Daesh attack and worry about their future

Syria’s Christians mark a decade since a horrific Daesh attack and worry about their future
  • The former Islamist insurgents who now run the country have repeatedly said religious rights will be protected.
  • This month, northeast Syria’s remaining Christians will mark the 10th anniversary of the Daesh attack on over 30 villages along the Khabur river.

TEL TAL: It was a mournful moment for Christians in Syria. A bell that once summoned residents to worship rang out, but the church was no longer there.
The Saint Odisho church was blown up by the Daesh group a decade ago, leaving Tel Tal village almost empty of residents.
A local Christian who fled the attack, Ishaq Nissan, walked the streets and pointed to uninhabited homes, explaining where families had gone: US, Australia, Canada or Europe.
This month, northeast Syria’s remaining Christians will mark the 10th anniversary of the Daesh attack on over 30 villages along the Khabur river. On Feb. 23, 2015, dozens of Christians were killed or wounded and over 200 were taken hostage. Churches were blown up, and thousands of people fled.
The anniversary comes as Christians worry about the future of Syria following the ouster of longtime president Bashar Assad in December by insurgents led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group. HTS leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa is now interim president, and most government members come from Islamic factions.
Al-Sharaa has repeatedly said religious rights will be protected in post-Assad Syria. Though HTS had been an Al-Qaeda affiliate, it is opposed to IS and fought deadly battles with it over the years. IS was defeated in Syria in 2019, but sleeper cells still carry out attacks.
Since Assad’s fall, there have been some attacks by others targeting Christians. In December, a Christmas tree was set on fire in Suqailabiyah village. Authorities called it an isolated incident.
“We hope as Christians that there will be cooperation between all parties of Syria in what gives everyone their rights,” Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Maurice Amsih, who leads the church in the northeast, told The Associated Press.
Amsih said Christians in Syria are opposed to Islamic rule: “We want them to treat us in a civil way.”
Western countries have pressed Syria’s new authorities to guarantee the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as those of women. The vast majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslims, while about a quarter of the population is Christian, Druze or Alawite.
Christians made up about 10 percent of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million, co-existing with the Muslim majority and enjoying freedom of worship under the Assad government. The last parliament speaker under Assad was Christian.
But since civil war began in 2011 with a popular uprising against Assad and a government crackdown, hundreds of thousands of Christians have left the country. The rise of IS, and its attack 10 years ago, helped to drive them out.
“We were living in peace and never expected this dark day to happen in our modern history,” said Elias Antar Elias, a Tel Tal resident who represents the villages of the Khabur river region in the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria.
The 78-year-old and his family fled in the middle of the night as the extremists stormed one Christian village after another, horrifying the population that had lived in relative peace for decades.
Elias, a retired teacher, fled with his family to the northeastern city of Hassakeh and stayed until Kurdish and Christian fighters regained control of their hometown months later.
“We saw the beheaded bodies of Christians on the side of the road as dogs were eating them,” Elias said, calling it “an image that pains our hearts.”
Elias said Tel Tal had about 400 residents before the IS attack. Today, there are about 30.
At the spot where the Saint Odisho church once stood, Elias recalled its importance: “This is where we baptized our children. This is where I got married.”
Asked why his family didn’t leave for good like many others, he replied: “I’m in love with this place. Our graves and martyrs are here. This is our land.”
The archbishop said 34 Christian villages along the Khabur river were home to 45,000 Assyrians before the 2015 attack.
Amsih said about 2.2 million Christians were in Syria before the civil war, and he estimated that two-thirds of them have left the country.
In nearby Tel Nasri, Christian residents have left and the village is full of displaced people from other regions. The Church of Virgin Mary still stands but is badly damaged after being blown up in 2015.
Some Christians who witnessed the violence say they have no plans to leave Syria, even with uncertainty ahead under new leaders.
Janet Chamoun was praying in a church in Qamishli in 2015 when a car bomb exploded outside, throwing her and her daughter to the floor. Glass shattered and some people were injured.
“Despite the fear we decided to stay,” Chamoun said outside the repaired Virgin Mary Syriac church, where she still comes every day to pray.
“Our home and roots are here,” she said.