Israeli and Thai hostages are freed in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners

Hamas released a Thai worker who had been working as a lookout at the Nahal Oz military base during the 2023 attack on southern Israel

More than 100 Palestinians would be freed by Israel in exchange for the release of hostages, which could include around 30 people serving life sentences for attacks against Israelis.

The eight captives that will be freed next were kidnapped by Hamas when they launched a surprise attack on southern Israel. Roughly 1,200 people were killed during the assault, mostly civilians, and another 250 were taken hostage, according to the Israeli government.

When she was not released then, Israel responded by delaying the passage of 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 after they were given a commitment for Ms. Yehud’s release.

The Thai hostages had been working in Israel as agricultural laborers when they were taken hostage along with the others in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. Three additional Thai workers are in captivity, along with two other people from Nepal andTanzania, who Israel has declared dead.

The young military conscript had volunteered to be a lookout at the Nahal Oz military base when she was kidnapped by Hamas. The other four lookouts, who were taken hostage during the attack, were released on Saturday.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, confirmed in a phone interview that the five Thai workers would be released on Thursday. He said that the workers were being held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that it was different from Hamas.

In exchange for the three freed Israeli hostages, 110 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are expected to be released from Israeli jails later in the day. The murderer of 21 people in a 2003 suicide bombing on a beachfront restaurant in Haifa was sentenced to life in prison. Most life sentences will be deported to other countries in the region.

The Israeli soldier, wearing green fatigues, was handed over by masked Hamas men to the Red Cross in the midst of intense fighting, before he was pictured on a stage and paraded.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza handed over three people to Israeli troops for the drive across the border into Israel.

Finally, around 7 p.m., a chain of buses arrived carrying dozens of Palestinian prisoners, including some who had been convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis. 27 children were among the 67 prisoners who arrived in Ramallah on Thursday. Another 14 arrived in Jerusalem and nine in Gaza, while 20 were sent to Egypt.

Samar Faisal, 28, is a Palestinian activist killed by an Israeli drone strike, but she is not afraid of her brother’s fate

The sisters and friends of the person who was killed by an Israeli drone strike in the West Bank town of Tubas wore black clothing in honor of him.

She was awaiting the release of her husband, Zakariya Zubeidi, a former militant turned theater director whom Israeli forces arrested in 2019. He was well-known in both Israel and the Palestinian territories for briefly escaping an Israeli prison.

But those concerns were eclipsed by joy after Mr. Zubeidi’s release on Thursday, when people in the crowd hoisted him onto their shoulders and chanted his name.

People were standing outside a government recreation center checking their phones for news or making calls from loved ones who were anxious for information.

Samar Faisal stood among a crowd in the crisp winter air, shivering as much from her excitement as the cold. She was in disbelief that a day had come. Her brother was going to be freed after more than two decades in an Israeli prison.