The sixth wave of the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas proceeded as planned on Saturday after a week of uncertainty and intense diplomatic efforts by American, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators to save the ceasefire deal.
Last Monday, Hamas announced that it would suspend the release of Israeli captives in Gaza in response to Israel’s “obstruction of the humanitarian protocol of the ceasefire deal.” Hamas military spokesperson Abu Obaida said that Israel’s delay in allowing important reconstruction material into Gaza was a breach of the stipulations of the ceasefire deal and “a new war on the Palestinian people.”
After an urgent cabinet meeting that lasted four hours following Hamas’s statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would consider the ceasefire deal null and void if Hamas did not release the following batch of captives.
In Washington, President Donald Trump said that “all hell will break out” if Hamas did not release Israeli captives by Saturday at noon. Trump’s ultimatum was notable in that its wording implied that Hamas would have to release all remaining Israeli captives on Saturday, a demand in direct contravention of the terms of the ceasefire that Trump’s administration had pushed Israel to accept ahead of his inauguration. According to Israeli reports, in fact, Netanyahu had, during the ceasefire talks, made the demand for the gradual weekly release of the captives.
In the wake of threats of the unraveling of the ceasefire, Qatari and Egyptian mediators reportedly intensified communications on Tuesday and Wednesday to solve the crisis. On Tuesday, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Israel to discuss with Israeli officials the continuation of the current phase of the ceasefire and the beginning of talks over the second phase, which would presumably see the permanent end of the war.
Hamas accused Netanyahu of delaying negotiations over the second phase of talks, which were supposed to begin last week, to avoid ending the war, which would provoke the collapse of his far-right government.
“The Zionist occupation is evading its obligations under the ceasefire agreement,” senior Hamas leader and politburo member Ismail Radwan told Mondoweiss. “The occupation’s goal is to deepen the suffering it created through its genocidal war against our people.”
The Hamas official referred to a number of Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, including opening fire on Palestinians, obstructing the return of the displaced to the north, preventing and delaying the entry of aid, and a number of other violations which Hamas documented and sent to Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Drop Site News obtained a copy of the list of violations, which included “political violations” in the form of statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approving of Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, Hamas announced that mediators had compelled Israel to abide by the terms of the ceasefire’s humanitarian protocol. Some reports indicate that limited amounts of heavy machinery, tents, and prefabricated mobile homes have started to gradually arrive at the Israeli side of the border with Gaza. However, no official source has confirmed whether any aid has started to enter. On Friday, Hamas announced the names of the three Israeli captives set to be released. The exchange took place as expected on Saturday.
Palestinian prisoners released
In the largest release of Palestinian prisoners since the beginning of the ceasefire deal, Israel released 333 Palestinians into Gaza who were captured in the Strip after October 7, 2023. It also released seven Palestinian prisoners from Jerusalem and another 29 from the West Bank. The group includes 36 Palestinians who were sentenced to life in prison. Only nine of the released prisoners were transferred to Ramallah, and 24 were deported.
On Saturday at noon, Palestinians gathered at Ramallah’s Cultural Palace to welcome the released prisoners. The single minibus carrying the International Red Cross logo made its way to the Cultural Palace’s entrance amidst crowds of prisoners’ families and media crews. The released prisoners were carried by the cheering crowds into the building, where they underwent medical exams. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that it transferred four of the released prisoners to the hospital due to their poor health condition.
Dressed by the Israeli Prison Service in white sweatshirts marked with a blue Star of David and an Arabic inscription that read, “We do not forget, we do not forgive,” the released prisoners embraced their family members amid chants for Gaza and in support of the resistance. One family, the mother-in-law of released prisoner Amir Abu Raddaha, broke into tears at the poor health of her son-in-law. “It isn’t him, this is not Amir,” she told Mondoweiss.
Abu Raddaha had spent 27 years in Israeli prison before his release. His niece, who had never met him in person, told Mondoweiss that “members of the family visited him in prison and said he was strong and large, weighing over 90 kilograms. And that’s what he looks like from his prison photos.”
Abu Raddaha appeared thin and frail and had aged considerably. As he entered the Cultural Palace building, he had difficulty sitting down for the medical exam.
“We were kept in very difficult conditions. I can’t explain, and I prefer not to speak about it. I’m just happy that I’m free now. This is a second birth for me,” Abu Radaha told the media.
Another released Palestinian prisoner, Mousa Sarahneh, was unable to walk by himself and was carried to an ambulance following the medical check-up “The days after October 7 were the most difficult. It was only pain, but it all went away as soon as I saw my people here,” 54-year-old Sarahneh said, who was arrested during the Second Intifada and spent 24 years in Israeli prison. “We were beaten every day, but not today. Today, everything went smoothly,” he added, refusing to give any further details.
Late on Saturday, President Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that Israel ought to decide what to do about the deadline he had given, in reference to his statement that Hamas should release all Israeli captives by Saturday. Trump added that the U.S. would support Israel in any decision it makes.
Former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who had resigned from the cabinet in protest of the ceasefire, called on Netanyahu to “stop missing opportunities,” as “not all the captives were released and it is the time to unleash hell on Hamas.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, an unusual move on a Saturday, according to Israeli reports.
Meanwhile, the Israeli captives’ families addressed Netanyahu in a statement late on Saturday, stressing that “We will not allow you to sabotage the second phase [of the ceasefire talks] and go back to an unjustified war.” The captives’ families also addressed Trump, noting that “Netanyahu promised Smotrich [the Israeli far-right Finance Minister, who is also opposed to the ceasefire] to return to the war, and we demand you to put pressure on everybody.”
Qassam Muaddi
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss. Follow him on Twitter/X at @QassaMMuaddi.
Smiling Israeli soldier films herself throwing grenades over wall in West Bank
No way to see who’s on other side of wall as murderousness of Zionism exposed again
A female Israeli soldier has posted a social media video of herself smiling as she throws and fires grenades over a wall isolating Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and shared images of herself, with other female soldiers, posing in a mirror in a Palestinian family’s West Bank home. The high wall meant the woman could not see what was on the other side as she fired blind into the densely populated besieged area.
The Israeli military has warned its troops not to post videos of themselves committing war crimes, but the sense of impunity seems to run so deep that they have not stopped. Israel has begun employing the genocide tactics in the West Bank that it has used in Gaza during its slaughter and maiming of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians there. The occupation regime has driven out tens of thousands of civilians in the West Bank and flattened huge areas of refugee dwellings, alongside its ongoing expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and protecting settlers as they shoot and burn those whose land they are stealing and demolish their homes.
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/02/15/smiling-israeli-soldier-films-herself-throwing-grenades-over-wall-in-west-bank/
I realize that most of you are perfectly willing to accept anything from the mouths of Hamas so long as it vilifies Israel, but does anyone seriously believe that political statements such as above were addressed in the ceasefire agreement?