{"id":227154,"date":"2025-01-29T18:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T18:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/29\/hamas-is-expected-to-release-8-israeli-and-thai-hostages\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T18:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T18:31:13","slug":"hamas-is-expected-to-release-8-israeli-and-thai-hostages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/29\/hamas-is-expected-to-release-8-israeli-and-thai-hostages\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas Is Expected to Release 8 Israeli and Thai Hostages"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/29\/multimedia\/29israel-hostages-gfpj\/29israel-hostages-gfpj-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Hamas Is Expected to Release 8 Israeli and Thai Hostages\" title=\"Hamas Is Expected to Release 8 Israeli and Thai Hostages\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hamas will release eight hostages on Thursday \u2014 three Israelis and five Thai nationals \u2014<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>after more than a year of captivity in Gaza, the Israeli government said Wednesday night, as the fragile cease-fire between the two sides held through its second week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli hostages slated for release include Gadi Moses, 80; Arbel Yehud, 29; and Agam Berger, 20, according to the Israeli authorities. In a statement on social media, Hamas confirmed the three Israelis would be freed. Neither Israel nor Hamas named the Thai citizens who would be released. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Under the terms of the cease-fire, Israel is expected to release more than 100 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages released on Thursday, including around 30 serving life sentences for involvement in deadly attacks against Israelis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The release is the third so far as Israel and Hamas observe a six-week truce, part of a multiphase agreement that mediators hope will end the war in Gaza. More than 45,000 people were killed there during Israel\u2019s campaign against Hamas, according to Gazan health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the 42-day initial cease-fire, Hamas committed to freeing at least 33 of the remaining 97 hostages in Gaza in exchange for a partial Israeli withdrawal and the release of over 1,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel. Under the terms of the deal, Ms. Yehud \u2014 <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/26\/world\/middleeast\/arbel-yehud-israel-hostage-hamas.html\" title=\"\">one of the last living women held hostage<\/a> \u2014 was initially supposed to be freed last week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When she was not released then, Israel responded by delaying the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/26\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-cease-fire.html\" title=\"\">passage of<\/a> hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza, as the agreement stipulated. The Israeli military allowed them to proceed<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/28\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-city-return-palestinians-israel.html\" title=\"\"> after mediators announced<\/a> on Sunday that they had secured a commitment for Ms. Yehud\u2019s release. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All of the eight captives expected to be freed next were abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on southern Israel that began the war. Roughly 1,200 people were killed during the assault, mostly civilians, and another 250 were taken hostage, according to the Israeli government. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Two of the Israeli hostages are from Nir Oz, an Israeli community near the border with Gaza that was one of the hardest-hit by the Hamas-led attack. More than 65 people were taken hostage from Nir Oz and dozens more were killed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Moses, a farming expert, was abducted from his home during the Hamas assault. His partner, Efrat, was killed during the attack, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/05\/world\/middleeast\/israel-oct-7-hostage-killed.html\" title=\"\">likely by an Israeli helicopter<\/a> that fired on a vehicle that was ferrying militants and hostages, according to the Israeli military. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Yehud was kidnapped, as was her partner, Ariel Cunio and the family of his brother, David. David Cunio\u2019s wife, Sharon, and their two children were freed along more than 100 other hostages during a weeklong truce in November 2023. Ms. Yehud\u2019s brother Dolev was killed during the attack, according to the Israeli military. Ariel and David Cunio remain in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Berger, a young military conscript, was abducted during Hamas\u2019s assault on Nahal Oz, the military base where she served as a lookout. Four of the other lookouts taken hostage during the attack were released on Saturday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, confirmed in a phone interview that the five Thai workers would be released on Thursday. The Thai workers were being held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, he said, referring to a smaller militant group in Gaza distinct from Hamas. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Thailand\u2019s ambassador to Israel, Pannabha Chandraramya, also said five of the eight remaining Thai hostages would be released on Thursday, although she said it was not yet clear which ones would be freed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Chandraramya said that six living and two dead Thai hostages in Gaza, all aged between 28 and 42, remained in Gaza. All were abducted on during the Hamas-led attack in 2023 from four farms close to the Gaza border, where they were employed as agricultural workers, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/29\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hamas-gaza-hostages.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hamas will release eight hostages on Thursday \u2014 three Israelis and five Thai nationals \u2014 after more than a year of captivity in Gaza, the Israeli government said Wednesday night, as the fragile cease-fire between the two sides held through its second week. The Israeli hostages slated for release include Gadi Moses, 80; Arbel Yehud, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/29\/multimedia\/29israel-hostages-gfpj\/29israel-hostages-gfpj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1504,32652,5552,193,38,1178,191,5550],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227156,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227154\/revisions\/227156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}