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Israel Releases Palestinian Terrorists After Delay Over ‘Horrific’ Gaza Mobbing of Freed Hostages
Palestinian terrorists surround hostage Arbel Yehoud, held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack, on the day they hand her over to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Jan. 30, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Israel on Thursday released 110 Palestinian prisoners after delaying the process due to outrage over the chaotic mobbing of freed Israeli hostages at a handover point in Gaza, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed.
“Israel insists that the lessons be learned and that strict care be taken in the next phases regarding the safe return of our hostages,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages after 482 days in captivity on Thursday, with the handovers taking place in both northern and southern Gaza.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, armed terrorists transferred the hostages to the Red Cross amid chaos — with people chanting for Hamas’s military wing, known as the al-Qassam Brigades, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and was killed by Israeli forces a year later — while the hostages looked fearful and struggled to walk through the crowd.
WATCH: Arbel Yehoud – a defenseless young woman – is swarmed by a crowd of armed terrorists and Gazan civilians.
If this is just her last moment in captivity, imagine what the past 482 days have been like. #letthemgonow
pic.twitter.com/3dlZIYfnWN
— Government Press Office
(@GPOIsrael) January 30, 2025
Israeli civilians Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80, were handed over by Hamas to representatives of the Red Cross in Khan Yunis. In photos and videos shared on social media, Yehud was seen scared as she walked through a chaotic crowd, surrounded by rifle-wielding militants, toward the Red Cross convoy.
After the incidents, Netanyahu, along with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, ordered a delay in the release of the Palestinian terrorists scheduled to be freed under the Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas until the safe exit of hostages in the next phases of the agreement could be assured.
Jerusalem demanded that mediators Qatar and Egypt, who helped negotiate the ceasefire, “guarantee the safety of our hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, describing the “horrific scenes” of Yehud and Mozes being taunted and mobbed.
“This is further proof of the unimaginable cruelty of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the statement continued.
Following Netanyahu’s demand, however, “the mediators have conveyed a commitment, according to which the safe exit of our hostages who are due to be released in the next phases has been assured,” his office said.
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli soldier Agam Berger, 20, who was kidnapped from an Israeli military field observers’ base in Nahal Oz, was transferred into Red Cross custody following a Hamas handover ceremony in northern Gaza.
All three Israelis were among the 251 hostages who were kidnapped during the Hamas-led rampage across southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were murdered, on Oct. 7, 2023.
The five released Thais were all foreign agricultural workers who were also taken hostage during the Oct. 7 onslaught. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) named them as Thaenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakhan, Sriaoun Watchara, Saethao Bannawat, and Rumnao Surasak.
Returnee Gadi Mozes (80), reuniting with his family at the Ichilov Medical Center.
Maayan Toaf, GPO pic.twitter.com/pGjYes430q
— Government Press Office
As part of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, 110 Palestinian prisoners were released in the third hostage-for-prisoner swap. During the first 42 days of the agreement, Hamas pledged to release 33 hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, where they have largely been imprisoned for involvement in terrorist activities.
Of those set to be released in the coming weeks, 32 were sentenced to life and 48 were serving long sentences, including Zakaria Zubeidi, Mohammad Abu Warda, and Sami Jaradat, according to Israel’s Channel 12 News.
Zubeidi, who led the Palestinian faction Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin and briefly escaped from Israel’s Gilboa Prison in 2021, will not be deported due to his conviction on terrorism offenses rather than murder, and is expected to return to the West Bank.
Abu Warda and Jaradat, responsible for attacks that killed 66 Israelis in the late 1990s and early 2000s, are scheduled to be deported and banned from re-entering Israeli territory.
The post Israel Releases Palestinian Terrorists After Delay Over ‘Horrific’ Gaza Mobbing of Freed Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.