More Israeli hostages are released, including a German-Israeli

Are there signs of a slight easing of tensions in the Middle East conflict? This week, among other things, an Israeli hostage in the Gaza Strip who also has German citizenship is scheduled to be released. This is what the mediating state of Qatar says. The Islamist Hamas would release the civilian and two other hostages by Friday, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Doha announced on Platform X that night. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed an agreement with Hamas. Accordingly, the three should be released on Thursday.

The Israeli-German civilian was abducted to the Gaza Strip during the attack by Hamas and other extremist groups on Israel on October 7, 2023 and, according to Palestinian information, is in the control of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). She is alive and the terms of her release are being negotiated with Israel with the help of mediators, the PIJ’s deputy general secretary, Mohammed Hindi, had previously told the German Press Agency.

In return, 30 Palestinians were to be released from Israeli custody. According to Qatar and Israel, three more hostages are to be released on Saturday. Israel said it also received from Hamas, as requested, a document containing information about which of the remaining Israeli hostages to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement are still alive. The agreement stipulates that in the first phase, 33 hostages will be released within six weeks in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners. All other hostages are expected to be released later. So far seven have been released.

The agreement also stipulates that civilians should be released first. Instead, Hamas released four young female soldiers on Saturday. In return, Israel released around 200 Palestinians from prison. Israel viewed the fact that the Israeli-German civilian was not released on Saturday as a violation of the agreement with Hamas. That’s why Israel’s army initially blocked the return of displaced Palestinian civilians from the south to the north of the sealed-off coastal strip.

Following the agreement, Qatar and Netanyahu’s office announced that Israel would allow the displaced people to return to northern Gaza starting this morning. Israel will not tolerate any violation of the agreement, Netanyahu reiterated.

On the southern side of the Netzarim corridor built by the Israeli military, which divides the Gaza Strip from west to east, thousands of people were reportedly congested as they wanted to return to their homes in the north of the Palestinian territory. Medical sources in Gaza said two people were killed and 15 injured by shots fired by Israeli soldiers. The information could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip met with widespread rejection. Egypt, Hamas and Jordan all firmly rejected such a solution. Cairo rejects both temporary and permanent relocation, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

Hamas reacted skeptically. A member of the Hamas politburo, Bassem Naim, told the Reuters news agency that they would not accept offers or solutions under the guise of reconstruction, even if, as here, there were “obviously good intentions” behind them.

However, the situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon remains tense. Deadly incidents erupted on Sunday in which 22 people were killed by Israeli forces, according to Lebanese sources, as the deadline for Israel’s withdrawal expired. The US then announced that it would extend the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel until February 18, 2025. The US-backed Lebanese military accused Israel of delaying the withdrawal. Israel has not yet commented on how long its troops will remain in the south of the country.

The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which ran parallel to the Gaza war, has uprooted more than a million people in Lebanon and severely weakened the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. The White House announced talks between the governments of Lebanon, Israel and the United States on the “return of Lebanese prisoners captured following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.”