US citizen is third freed in latest Gaza hostage-prisoner swap

Galit Altstein and Fares Akram, Bloomberg News on Feb 1, 2025

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A fourth swap of hostages for prisoners moved ahead early Saturday as Israel and Hamas uphold agreements in the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire — including the reopening of the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Three hostages — Ofer Kalderon, Yarden Bibas and Keith Siegel — were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza and have crossed the border into Israel. Separately, at least some of the Palestinian prisoners slated for release on Saturday arrived at the West Bank from Israel’s Ofer Prison.

Siegel, 65, is the first U.S. citizen to be released since the beginning of the current 42-day ceasefire.

The release of the three men marked the completion of the first part in a fourth hostage-prisoner swap as the ceasefire is about to enter its third week. It’s planned to last 42 days.

Kalderon and Bibas, who’ve already been reunited with some family members at an initial reception point in southern Israel, were taken to hospital in central Israel, per protocol.

Siegel has crossed into Israel and was received at an initial reception point in the nation’s south, the IDF announced.

The American came to live in Israel from North Carolina four decades ago. He was kidnapped from his home in Kfar Aza, a few kilometers (miles) east of Gaza, during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas. Also taken was his wife Aviva, who was released during the previous ceasefire in November 2023.

Kalderon, 54, and Bibas, 35, were both kidnapped, along with their families, from their homes in Nir Oz during the Hamas incursion.

Kalderon was taken with his two children, Sahar and Erez, who were released in November.

Bibas was abducted along with his wife Shiri and their two young children — Ariel, who was 4 years old at the time, and Kfir, an infant of 9 months, the youngest of all hostages taken by Hamas.

Bibas’ wife and children had been slated for released in November and have also appeared on the list of those to be handed over during the current ceasefire’s three previous swaps, but haven’t been released so far. The Israeli military has repeatedly said there’s great concern for their lives.

Saturday’s handover in Khan Younis was completed in an organized manner, as opposed to chaotic scenes witnessed during Thursday’s release. Israel at that point briefly delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners as a protest, and said it insisted that mediators make sure such scenes are avoided in future handovers.

In turn for the three hostages freed on Saturday, Israel started the release of 183 Palestinian prisoners — 18 serving life sentences in Israeli jails, another 54 with long sentences, and 111 detained during Israel’s operations in Gaza.

The 111 are part of 1,000 detainees of this category that Hamas said Israel agreed to free during the first phase.

The Rafah crossing connecting Gaza and Egypt will reopen on Saturday for the first time since May, when it shut down following the start of Israel’s ground operations in Rafah. The crossing resumes operation as part of current agreements between Israel and Hamas.

The crossing will be operated by Palestinians and members of the European Union’s civilian Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah Crossing Point (EUBAM Rafah), reviving a short-lived arrangement signed in 2005.

Israel has agreed to allow at least 50 medical patients to cross daily from Gaza to Egypt, each with as many as three escorts. A total of at least 200 Palestinians is expected to leave Gaza under this arrangement on Saturday.

Two buses carrying a first batch of injured and ill Gazans headed out of Nasser and the European Hospital in Khan Younis toward the crossing early Saturday.

EUBAM said in a statement on Friday that it had redeployed the Rafah Crossing Point at the request of the Palestinians and the Israelis in agreement with the Egyptians.

“The mission deployed a specialized team to the Rafah Crossing Point to allow Palestinian personnel to reopen the RCP,” said EUBAM, adding that “under the terms agreed with the parties, the period of deployment of the EUBAM Rafah specialized team at the RCP will last until the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.”

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(With assistance from Fadwa Hodali.)