Demonstrators raise placards as they celebrate the release of Agam Berger (portrait) held captive in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian fighters, in Tel Aviv on January 30, 2025. AFP
Under the ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have jubilantly returned to northern Gaza over the past three days.
However, their homecoming has been bittersweet as nearly everyone has friends or relatives who died. Many northern neighbourhoods have been transformed into an apocalyptic landscape of devastation by more than 15 months of the war.
Who's set to be released today?
According to what Hamas has received, the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released Thursday from Israeli prisons includes 32 sentenced to life, 48 with high sentences, and 30 children, Al Jazeera reported.
After release, 66 prisoners will be transferred to the West Bank, including Zakaria Zubeidi, a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah).
Zubeidi took part in the dramatic Gilboa jailbreak in 2021 before being rearrested days later.
Moreover, 14 Jerusalemite prisoners will be transferred to Jerusalem after release. Nine others will be deported to Gaza, according to the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
They also stated that 21 prisoners sentenced to life will be deported outside Palestine via Egypt.
Prisoner advocacy organizations announced that the third batch of the first phase will be received around midday in the Al-Balou' area of Ramallah, according to Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, the Israelis to be released are Agam Berger, a 20-year-old female soldier; Arbel Yehoud, a 29-year-old civilian woman; and Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man.
AP reported that the identities of the Thai nationals who will be released were not immediately revealed.
Yehoud was at the centre of the dispute about the sequence of releases that briefly rocked the ceasefire over the weekend.
Israel says she was supposed to have been freed Saturday, so it delayed the opening of crossings to northern Gaza when she was not.
Several foreign workers were taken captive during the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on 7 October 2023.
Twenty-three Thais were among over 100 captives released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says eight remain.
Jeopardising the deal
A fourth exchange is scheduled for the weekend, but Hamas accused Israel on Wednesday of jeopardising the deal by holding up aid deliveries.
"According to the agreement, these materials were supposed to enter during the first week of the ceasefire," a Hamas official told AFP.
"We warn that continued delays and failure to address these points will affect the natural progression of the agreement, including the prisoner exchange."
The next swap on Saturday will see three Israeli men released, according to the Israeli prime minister's office.
The ceasefire deal is currently in its first 42-day phase, which should see 33 Israeli captives freed, including women, children, older adults, and sick or wounded men, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Next, the parties are due to discuss a long-term end to the war.
The deal's third and final phase should see the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the bodies of any remaining dead captives.
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