Israel and Hamas conducted a fifth exchange of prisoners and hostages Saturday as part of a ceasefire agreement that has paused 16 months of war in Gaza.
Hamas released three Israeli civilians and Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners.
It was the fifth swap of hostages for prisoners since the ceasefire began on January 19.
Twenty-one hostages and more than 730 Palestinian prisoners have now been freed.
The civilian hostages had been abducted during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that left about 1200 people, mostly civilians, dead and sparked the war.
The prisoners released by Israel on Saturday included 111 from Gaza who were rounded up after the Hamas attack and detained without trial.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory war following the Hamas attack, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday it is increasingly concerned about release operations in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire following Hamas’ heavily stage-managed release of three gaunt-looking Israeli hostages.
In Gaza, hostages Omar Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy took the stage and made short speeches before being ferried by the Red Cross back to Israel.
The scene drew strong rebuke from Israeli leaders who said the hostages looked like Holocaust survivors and denounced the release as a spectacle.
Following the release, the Red Cross said it “strongly (urges) all parties, including the mediators, to take responsibility to ensure that future releases are dignified and private”.
The group said it conveyed that message “privately and publicly” to Israel and Hamas.
Observers are concerned that US President Donald Trump’s stunning proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza could put the fragile ceasefire deal at risk.
Morocco has denounced Trump’s plan.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita held talks Saturday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Rabat in which the pair issued a statement calling plans to relocate Palestinians “a dangerous precedent contrary to the principles of international and humanitarian law.”
They said such plans could undermine the region’s security.
The two foreign ministers join officials from other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, in rejecting the plan Trump floated at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Morocco is one of four Arab countries to have normalised ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords brokered during Trump’s first term.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians on Saturday were fleeing their homes in a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank as the Israeli army escalated its raid against Palestinian militants.
Israeli army bulldozers have torn up streets and alleys in Fa’ra refugee camp, a hardscrabble urban area home to more than 8000 residents, cutting off water supplies and electricity.
Sewage is seeping into the rutted roads, residents say, and the conditions have become increasingly unliveable as the military destroys infrastructure and businesses.
For the past week, the Israeli army has also shut off all roads leading to and from the camp, banning cars and impeding deliveries of food and other supplies, said Asim Mansour, who runs the camp’s Popular Committee, or elected leadership.
On Saturday, residents said the Israeli army secured a passage for civilians to leave the camp.
At least 1000 residents have fled, Mansour said.
Families were seen carrying their belongings and children through the mud and to the houses of their relatives in nearby villages.
Mansour also said that the Israeli army had taken over 15 homes for military purposes, forcing their occupants to leave.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday’s evacuations.
