Red Cross personnel, escorted by Hamas militants, wait to head towards an area within the so-called “yellow line” to which Israeli troops withdrew under the ceasefire, as Hamas says it continues to search for the bodies of deceased hostages seized during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in Gaza City, on November 12, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Heavy machinery operates at a site where searches for deceased hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel are underway amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 19, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hamas fighters stand in formation ahead of a hostage’s release in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. File
| Photo Credit: AP

A top Hamas leader said the militant group will release six living Israeli hostages on Saturday (February 22, 2025).

Hamas also said that it will release the bodies of four hostages on Thursday (February 20, 2025).

The six hostages to be released on Saturday (February 22, 2025) will include Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengisto, who were held in Gaza before the start of war there, the Hamas leader in Gaza said on Tuesday (February 18, 2025).

Meanwhile, the bodies will include members from the Bibas family, Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised speech.

Hamas militants captured Yarden and Shiri Bibas and their two children: Ariel, who was four when kidnapped and baby Kfir who was 9-months-old. Yarden was released on February 1.

The six are the last living hostages set to be freed under the first phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Three hostages had been expected to be freed on Saturday (February 22, ,2025).

The warring sides have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

The releases have come in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, 65, center left, waves as he is escorted by Hamas fighters to be handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza City, Saturday Feb.1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

A freed Israeli hostage said Friday (February 14, 2025) that Hamas militants starved and tortured him during captivity, as the Red Cross expressed concern over the condition of those still held in Gaza.

Hamas is set to release three more captives on Saturday in the sixth hostage-prisoner swap under a ceasefire deal with Israel.

“When I was in Gaza, I lived in constant fear, fear for my life and my personal safety,” Keith Siegel, an Israel-American who was freed on February 1, said in a video statement addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The terrorists kicked me, spat on me, and held me with no water, no light, and no air to breathe.

“I was starved and tortured, both physically and emotionally,” he said.

The mother of another released hostage, Liri Albag, told Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that her daughter sometimes had nothing to eat for days, and “at times, they ate food meant for donkeys”.

Shiri Albag, in comments published on Thursday, said there was “minimal hygiene” in Gaza and recalled how her daughter’s captives taunted her with videos of the male hostages being beaten and abused.

“Liri told us right at the beginning, ‘I came out of hell and we went through hell there, but the boys, the soldiers, are going through more than us,'” Shiri Albag said in a separate interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news.

The latest allegations of abuse in captivity came hours as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the ongoing hostage-prisoner swaps between Israel and Hamas, said it was concerned about those still in Gaza.

“The latest release operations reinforce the urgent need for ICRC access to those held hostage. We remain very concerned about the conditions of the hostages,” the Red Cross said in a statement on X.

“We have consistently reiterated that release and transfer operations should be carried out in a dignified and safe manner.

“The ICRC will continue our efforts to see all hostages released, until the last hostage is returned.”

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on January 19, the two sides have conducted five hostage-prisoner swaps.

During the fifth exchange on February 8, Hamas forced three hostages to thank their captors in front of crowds of Palestinians gathered to witness their release in Gaza.

The emaciated appearance of the hostages shocked their families and the world, and prompted the ICRC to call on Hamas to ensure subsequent swaps are more private and dignified.

The next hostage-prisoner exchange is scheduled for Saturday. Three additional men are to be released.

Since the ceasefire began, militants have released 16 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.

A Palestinian man was killed and seven people were wounded by Israeli fire overnight, local health officials said Sunday (January 26, 2025), as thousands gathered in hopes of returning to the northern Gaza Strip under a fragile week-old ceasefire aimed at winding down the war.

In a separate development, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Saturday (January 25, 2025) that most of Gaza’s population should be at least temporarily resettled elsewhere, including in Egypt and Jordan, in order to “just clean out” the war-ravaged enclave.

Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians themselves have previously rejected such a scenario, fearing Israel might never allow the refugees to return.

Under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Israel on Saturday (January 25, 2025) was to begin allowing Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza on foot through the so-called Netzarim corridor bisecting Gaza. Israel put the move on hold until Hamas frees a hostage, who Israel said was supposed to have been released Saturday (January 25, 2025). Hamas in turn accused Israel of violating the agreement.

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Crowds of people travelling by foot and carrying their belongings crowded a main road leading to a closed Israeli checkpoint. “We have been in agony for a year and a half,” Nadia Qasem, a woman displaced from the north said as she waited. “Since 1 a.m. we have been waiting to return.”

Fadi al-Sinwar, who was also displaced from Gaza City, said, “the fate of more than a million people is linked to one person,” referring to the Israeli hostage.

“See how valuable we are? We are worthless,” he said.

A man was shot and two others were wounded late Saturday (January 25, 2025), according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. A further five Palestinians, including a child, were wounded early Sunday (January 26, 2025) in a separate shooting, the hospital said.

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There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel has pulled back from several areas of Gaza as part of the ceasefire, which came into force last Sunday (January 19, 2025), but the military has warned people to stay away from its forces, which are still operating in a buffer zone inside Gaza along the border and in the Netzarim corridor.

Hamas freed four young female Israeli soldiers on Saturday (January 25, 2025), and Israel released some 200 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks.

But Israel said another hostage, the female civilian Arbel Yehoud, was supposed to have been released ahead of the soldiers, and that it would not open the Netzarim corridor until she was freed. It also accused Hamas of failing to provide details on the conditions of hostages set to be freed in the coming weeks.

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Hamas accused Israel of using the issue as a pretext to delay the return of Palestinians to their homes. In a statement, the militant group said it had informed mediators that Ms. Yehoud was alive and provided guarantees that she would be released.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which mediated the ceasefire, were working to address the dispute.

The ceasefire reached earlier this month after more than a year of negotiations is aimed at ending the 15-month war triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and freeing scores of hostages still held in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Around 90 hostages are still being held in Gaza, and Israeli authorities believe at least a third, and up to half of them, were killed in the initial attack or died in captivity.

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The first phase of the ceasefire runs until early March and includes the release of a total of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The second — and far more difficult — phase, has yet to be negotiated. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war, while Israel has threatened to resume its offensive until Hamas is destroyed.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the October 7, 2023 attack, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 people. More than 100 were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the remains of dozens more, at least three of whom were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces. Seven have been freed since the latest ceasefire began.

Israel’s military campaign has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not say how many of the dead were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

Israeli bombardment and ground operations have flattened wide swaths of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people. Many who have returned to their homes since the ceasefire began have found only mounds of rubble where their neighbourhoods once stood.