Gaza’s Hamas leader, Khalil al-Hayya, announced in a recorded speech on Tuesday, February 18, that the movement will hand over six Israeli captives and the bodies of four dead others to Israel next Saturday, February 22.
The six captives are reportedly the last living captives that were scheduled to be released as part of the first phase of the deal. The first phase consists of 33 captives, including 25 living and eight bodies.
In return, Israel is scheduled to release 502 Palestinian prisoners this week. A total of 1,135 Palestinian prisoners have been freed from Israeli prisons over the past weeks as part of the first phase.
Hamas accelerates captive releases as goodwill gesture
Releasing 10 Israeli captives at a time (whether alive or dead) is considered an acceleration of the release process. Al-Hayya stated that Hamas sought to take such a step as part of its “continuous efforts to render success to the first phase of the ceasefire deal” and “pave the way for entering the second phase in response to mediation efforts.”
Israel also decided to allow mobile homes and construction equipment into the besieged Gaza strip. In return for Hamas expediting the release of the agreed upon captives next Saturday, according to Israeli media reports.
“Under the agreement Israel agreed to allow mobile homes and construction equipment into Gaza after stringent inspections. In accordance with the negotiations and on condition Hamas upholds the agreement, Israel will begin allowing this in a controlled and phased way,” an unnamed Israeli senior official told The Times of Israel.
After Israel’s deliberate obstruction of talks for almost two weeks, Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, announced on Tuesday that negotiations to begin the second phase of Gaza’s ceasefire and captives-for prisoner swap deal “will happen this week.”
