On Monday morning, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, began handing over the first batch of Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is responsible for transporting them to Israel.
Channel 12 reported that "the Red Cross received seven prisoners in the Gaza Strip." The channel explained that the Israeli prisoners who were handed over are: Matan Angrist, Gali Berman, Zeev Berman, Alon Ohl, Eitan Horn, Guy Gilboa Dalal, and Omri Miran.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) received seven Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, after its teams arrived at the first designated handover site in the Gaza Strip as part of the ceasefire and exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Channel 12 revealed that the occupation army initially received 7 Israeli prisoners from the Red Cross, in addition to 13 Israeli prisoners at 10:00 local time (07:00 GMT) from the central Gaza Strip.
The channel added that the families of the Israeli prisoners were instructed to head to the Ra'im military base near Gaza in preparation for receiving their released relatives.
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced Monday morning that it had decided to release 20 living Israeli prisoners as part of what it called the "Al-Aqsa Flood Prisoner Exchange Deal."
The Brigades stated in its statement that the Israeli prisoners to be released are: Bar Avraham Kuperstein, Avitar David, Yosef Haim Ohana, Segev Kalfon, Avinatan Or, Elkana Bohbot, Maxim Herkin, Nimrod Cohen, Matan Tsengauker, David Konio, Eitan Horn, Matan Angrist, Eitan Mor, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Omri Miran, Alon Ohl, Guy Gilboa-Dallal, Rom Braslavsky, and Ariel Konio.
Israeli Army Radio reported that the list of names published by Hamas matched the list known to Israel, while the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that Red Cross vehicles had headed to meeting points inside the Gaza Strip to receive the prisoners, in preparation for their transfer.
Qassam: We are committed to the agreement
The Al-Qassam Brigades said in statements posted on Telegram, "The agreement reached is the fruit of the steadfastness of our people and the resilience of its resistance fighters. We declare our commitment to the agreement reached and the timetables associated with it, as the occupation has committed to."
“The resistance has always been keen to stop the war of extermination, and has sought to do so since the first months, but the enemy has thwarted all efforts for its own narrow calculations and to satisfy the instinct of brutality and revenge of its Nazi government,” the Qassam Brigades added, noting that “the enemy failed to recover its prisoners through military pressure, despite its superior intelligence and the surplus power it possesses. Now it is submitting and recovering its prisoners through an exchange deal, as the resistance promised from the beginning.”
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement on the first phase of his ceasefire and prisoner exchange plan, following indirect negotiations between the two sides in Sharm el-Sheikh, with the participation of Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar, and under US supervision.
Under the agreement, Israel is scheduled to release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, in addition to approximately 1,700 others arrested by Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip after October 7, 2023.
Tel Aviv estimates that there are 48 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, 20 of whom are still alive. Meanwhile, more than 11,100 Palestinians are languishing in its prisons, suffering from torture, starvation, and medical neglect. Many of these Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel went into effect at 12:00 noon on Friday, Jerusalem time (09:00 GMT), after the Israeli government approved the agreement at dawn.
The agreement is based on a plan proposed by Trump, which calls for a ceasefire, a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army, a mutual release of prisoners, the immediate entry of aid into the Gaza Strip, and the disarmament of Hamas.
