Israel-Hamas ceasefire live updates: American hostage released by Hamas


Israel-Hamas ceasefire live updates: American hostage released by Hamas

Updated Feb. 1, 2025, 3:05 PM GMT+5 The fourth hostage-prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas is underway in Gaza. Hamas handed over Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas in an orderly exchange in Khan Younis. Bibas was captured with his wife and two young children, one of whom was nearly 9 months old at the time. Later this morning, Hamas handed over Israeli American Keith Siegel, 65, at the Port of Gaza, in another orderly, choreographed transfer. Buses carrying Palestinians have left Ofer Prison for Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. About 180 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are expected to be released from Israeli custody today. A total of eighteen hostages and nearly 600 Palestinians have been set free since the exchanges began Jan. 19. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza after the Israeli military withdrew from the area, and Gaza's Civil Defense said it had recovered 520 bodies of the estimated 14,000 buried beneath the rubble.