Fourth prisoner-hostage exchange to include American

Video shows the moments Hamas handed over Kalderon, the first Israeli hostage released in the latest exchange.

Kalderon, surrounded by masked and armed soldiers, is seen in the video walking up onto a stage in Khan Younis. He holds a sheet of paper and waves to the crowd.

A total of 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are expected to be released today, according to the Hamas Office of Martyrs, Prisoners and Wounded.

The prisoners include 18 with life sentences, 54 with high sentences and life sentences and 111 from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after the Oct. 7 attacks, the office said.

It was not immediately clear why nearly 200 prisoners were to be released in exchange for the three hostages.

According to the terms of the deal, 30 Palestinian prisoners and detainees will be released from Israeli custody in exchange for each civilian hostage.

They are expected to handover Israeli American Keith Siegel, after two other hostages, Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas, were handed over earlier in the city of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

Kalderon and Bibas have arrived at an initial reception point in southern Israel, the IDF said in a statement.

Their families are waiting to reunite with them at the hospital, it said.

With the release of Yarden Bibas, questions remain over the fate of his wife and two young children who were also taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Hamas has said that his wife, Shiri Bibas, and two sons, Ariel and Kfir, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023. The Bibas family has held onto hope that they are alive and will also be released as part of the ceasefire hostage exchange.

Ariel was 5 and Kfir was just shy of 9-months-old when they were taken hostage along with their parents.

In a choregraphed handover streamed on live TV, masked and uniformed Hamas militants paraded two hostages across a stage set up in Khan Younis.

The orderly exchange with the Red Cross contrasted with Thursday’s chaotic handover.

The IDF said two of the hostages expected to be turned over today are on their way back to Israeli territory.

The two — Bibas and Kalderon — will undergo a medical assessment, the IDF said.

“The IDF is prepared to receive an additional hostage in the near future,” it said. Siegel is expected to be the third hostage to be released today.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the families of the two men have been told they “have joined our forces.”

“The government, together with all security agencies, will accompany them and their families,” the office said.

The Israel Defense Forces said it has received information from the Red Cross that two hostages were transferred to them and are on their way to IDF forces in the Gaza Strip.

Video broadcast by Sky News showed two of the hostages — Kalderon and Bibas — coming out to a platform and a handover in Khan Younis.

Several Red Cross vehicles were seen leaving the handover

Siegel was not at the Khan Younis ceremony and it was not immediately clear whether he was at a separate handover ceremony in Gaza City.

Hamas handed over Israeli hostages Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon to the Red Cross in Gaza’s Khan Younis on Saturday, live TV footage showed. 

American Israeli Keith Siegel is among the hostages set to be released Saturday, Hamas said in a statement Friday, as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange with Israel.

Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon will also be released, according to Hamas’ statement.

Siegel, 65, was last seen in a video released by Hamas in April, where he spoke directly to his family to say he was doing OK. Originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Siegel was taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that saw some 250 people kidnapped and about 1,200 killed.

Read the full story here.