The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza reopened on Saturday for the first time in nearly nine months as Israel and Palestinian militants carried out the latest exchange of hostages and prisoners under the fragile ceasefire agreement.
Several sick and injured Palestinian patients were evacuated via the Rafah crossing to receive medical treatment outside war-ruined Gaza, Egyptian security and Red Crescent sources said.
The first patients included a boy with an immune disorder, accompanied by his mother, as well as a girl who was to have one of her legs amputated, Egypt’s state-linked al-Qahera News TV channel reported.
Footage on al-Qahera showed them arriving at the Egyptian side of the crossing, where they were met by ambulances.
A total of 50 sick and injured people, along with 53 escorts, are expected to be evacuated Saturday from Gaza into Egypt, according to the broadcaster.
In May last year, Israel took control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, in an operation that halted aid deliveries into the densely populated coastal strip via the vital facility, as well as the transportation of patients to Egypt.
According to the World Health Organization, between 12,000 and 14,000 people in Gaza urgently require medical care that cannot be provided in Gaza.
The reopening of the border crossing is part of the three-phase ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement and Israel that went into effect on January 19.
Israel exchanges Palestinian prisoners for three hostages
The next three Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip were freed on Saturday morning in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners under the ceasefire agreement.
Palestinian militants handed Israeli-Argentinian citizen Yarden Bibas, 35, and French-Israeli citizen Ofer Calderon, 54, over to representatives of the Red Cross in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
About two hours later, US-Israeli citizen Keith Siegel, 65, was freed in Gaza City.
The hostages kidnapped 484 days ago were taken to an Israeli military base, where they met their families, before they were transported to Israel.
In exchange, Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners, 72 from Israeli prisons, of which 39 were held in the West Bank. Seven of them were to be transferred abroad because of the severity of their crimes.
The remaining prisoners were released from the Gaza Strip and were imprisoned before the October 7, 2023 massacre.
In addition, Israel was to release 111 prisoners who had been detained in the Gaza Strip after the Hamas-led attacks. According to reports, Israel has established that the prisoners freed from Gaza had nothing to do with the Hamas attack.
Dozens of released prisoners arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where their relatives waited to greet them.
Later, buses carrying prisoners arrived in the south of the Gaza Strip.
A bus carrying eight Palestinian prisoners arrived at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Saturday, Egyptian security sources said. They are to be later transported to Cairo.
Four swaps have freed 18 hostages and hundreds of Palestinian detainees since the beginning of the truce in Gaza almost two weeks ago.
After the release of the three abductees on Saturday, 79 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 35 of whom are presumed dead by Israel.
Another exchange of hostages and prisoners is set for next weekend.
During the first six-week stage of the ceasefire agreement, 33 Israeli hostages are due to be released in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
Hamas has said that eight of the 33 hostages on the list for release during this phase are dead. It is unclear who exactly they are.
Among those scheduled to be released in the first phase are Bibas’s wife Shiri and two sons Kfir and Ariel. However, there is grave concern over the fate of Kfir, Ariel and Shiri. Hamas has claimed the three were killed in Israeli attacks in the early months of the war, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.
Calmer scenes in Gaza
Both the transfer in Khan Younis and the one in Gaza City proceeded calmly on Saturday morning – unlike the chaotic conditions surrounding the release of eight Israeli and Thai hostages on Thursday, when crowds swarmed around the frightened-looking captives.
After these threatening scenes, Israel demanded that the countries that brokered the ceasefire agreement compel Hamas to keep the transfers orderly.
Terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups killed around 1,200 people in their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and took more than 250 Israelis hostage to the Gaza Strip.
The attack triggered the war in the sealed-off coastal area, where more than 47,400 people have been killed since then, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. The number does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
