Two of the captives were released Saturday in the southern city of Khan Yunis in a swift and organized ceremony with a few onlookers, while the third was submitted to the ICRC later in Gaza City in the north. In Gaza City where a stage had been erected at a harbor for the handover, ranks of Hamas fighters formed up on the beachfront in a show of force against the dramatic backdrop of breaking waves.
The fighters held up portraits of Hamas leaders killed in combat, including Mohammed Deif, its military chief whose death was confirmed by Hamas on Thursday. In Khan Yunis, an assault rifle, apparently captured from Israeli forces during the fighting in Gaza, had been placed on the table where Red Cross workers exchanged paperwork with a Hamas official.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance fighters have so far freed 18 captives in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them women and minors. After Saturday's exchange, Gaza's key Rafah border crossing with Egypt is expected to reopen, a Hamas official and a source with knowledge of discussions was quoted as saying. Rafah was a vital Gaza aid entry point before the Israeli military seized the Palestinian side of the crossing in May.
The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Friday the bloc has deployed a monitoring mission at the crossing "to support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care". As part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Palestinians have been slowly returning to their homes in northern Gaza over the past week.
Under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire, 33 captives held by Hamas in Gaza are to be freed in the first six weeks of the truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian abductees, many of whom have been serving life sentences in Israeli jails.
