In photos and videos shared on social media, Yehud was seen scared as she walked through a chaotic crowd, surrounded by rifle-wielding terrorists, toward the Red Cross convoy.
By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner
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 terrorists, 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 Ramallah.
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
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