Netanyahu speaks with mothers of the 3 hostages released Sunday, vows not to give up on other captives; Israeli envoy says Moscow working to free 3 non-Russian hostages
A senior Hamas official said Thursday that the terror group will provide Israel on Friday with the names of the four hostages it will release on Saturday, in the second exchange of hostages for Palestinian security prisoners as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.
Speaking to the Qatari Al-Araby news outlet, senior Hamas leader Zaher Jabarin said, “Tomorrow we will give the mediators the names of the four hostages who will be released.”
Jabarin, who is in charge of the group’s activities in the West Bank, lives in Istanbul and is a Hamas leader in exile.
The second exchange of the deal is set to take place on Saturday afternoon, when Hamas is expected to release four women — both soldiers and civilians.
Hamas had also been expected to provide Israel with details on the status of the 30 remaining hostages due to be freed in the first stage of the deal, providing long-sought specifics on which hostages were alive.
Even so, the number of living hostages would allow Israel to prepare the appropriate number of Palestinian security prisoners to be released.
On Wednesday, Hebrew media reported that Israel told Hamas that it expects the terror group to free hostage Arbel Yehud in Saturday’s exchange.
Yehud is among the civilian hostages held by Gaza terrorists, and, as a female civilian, should be in the next batch freed. However, she is thought to be held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group and not Hamas, apparently leading to concern in Jerusalem that Hamas may attempt to put off her release.
She is one of seven female hostages remaining from the original list of 33 to be released in the first phase of the hostage ceasefire deal. The others are Shiri Silberman Bibas, 33; Liri Albag, 19; Karina Ariev, 20; Agam Berger, 21; Danielle Gilboa, 20 and Naama Levy, 20.
For each of the female soldiers, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, 30 of them convicted terrorists who are serving life sentences.
Early Monday, Israel released 30 prisoners for each of the three civilian female hostages — Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher — Hamas set free the previous afternoon.
‘We won’t give up on the others’
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with the parents of Damari, Steinbrecher and Gonen, who urged him to do everything he could to bring the rest of the hostages home.
“We didn’t give up and we won’t give up on the others,” Netanyahu told them in a recording of the call distributed by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Meirav Leshem Gonen, Romi’s mother, thanked him for doing the “moral, responsible thing, having the courage” to bring them home. She said the three women are starting their process of recovery, “and their strong wish is to bring back the rest of their brothers and sisters.”
Simona Steinbrecher, Doron’s mother, told Netanyahu that “we are asking in the name of Doron, begging, not to stop — everyone needs to be with their families.”
Emily’s mother Mandy, speaking in English, thanked the prime minister “for finally signing a ceasefire agreement, I know it took a lot of courage, but it was so important to get Emily back, and all the hostages need to feel as happy as we feel.”
Russia’s help
Israeli Ambassador to Russia Simona Halperin revealed Thursday that Jerusalem is also working with Moscow to help free three hostages held in Gaza who do not have Russian citizenship.
In an interview with the Russian RBC news agency, Halperin noted the ongoing work to help free Russian-Israeli hostage Sasha Trufanov, who is on the list of 33 hostages expected to be freed in the first stage of the ceasefire.
In addition, she said, there are conversations regarding hostage Maxim Herkin, a native of Ukraine whose mother and daughter have Russian citizenship, and who is not currently slated for release.
Halperin said in the interview that “it is important to say that I am working with the Russian side to release the hostages not only with Russian citizenship,” saying there is work toward the release of “Maxim Herkin and two other hostages, whose fate Russia is concerned about.”
The ambassador said she would not reveal the other two names, which are not on the list of those being freed in the first stage: “We very much hope that the Russian side will be able to really help in this. I sincerely believe that if the Russian side insistently demands it, it will be able to help free these three hostages.”
During the weeklong November 2023 ceasefire and hostage release, Hamas freed Russian-Israeli Roni Krivoy outside of the deal framework, in what it said was a gesture to Moscow.
Ninety-one of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
A safety net
Also on Thursday, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz slammed Netanyahu’s “extremist” government for failing to “formulate a path to overthrow the Hamas regime” in Gaza.
“It’s been over a year and a solution has still not been found on how to deliver humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza without some kind of mediation by Hamas,” the former war cabinet minister said during a speech at Reichman University in Herzliya.
“At the beginning of the war, I laid down principles for the establishment of an international administration that will operate in Gaza on behalf of the moderate Arab countries. We have an opportunity to implement this plan together with the Trump administration [and] we must not miss it,” he continued.
Turning to the current ceasefire-hostage return deal, Gantz reiterated his promise to provide Netanyahu with the backing he needs to keep to the agreement in the face of opposition from his far-right coalition partners.
“My colleagues and I promised a safety net for the return of the hostages and we will stand by it. There is no need to enter the government to ensure that it does not fall. A safety net can also be provided outside the government,” he said.
His party will stand in the way of legislation that exempts the Haredi community from military service and block passage of a budget that is bad for the economy, he said, adding, “But as long as the return of the abductees is really at the center of the action, we will find the solutions so that the government does not fall ‘until the final hostage.’”
A spokesman for Gantz did not provide details on what sort of solutions are available to the National Unity chief.
