Hamas has released a third hostage, US-Israeli citizen Keith Siegel, into the care of Red Cross representatives in the Gaza Strip.
Live television broadcasts showed Siegel handed over by Hamas militants to the aid workers in Gaza City.
Siegel, 65, was kidnapped from his home along with his wife Aviva during the Hamas-led massacres on October 7, 2023. Militants drove the Siegels into the Gaza Strip in their own car at gunpoint.
Aviva was released along with some 100 other hostages during a week-long ceasefire in November 2023.
Two Israeli men – Yarden Bibas, 35, and Ofer Calderon – were earlier freed on Saturday in the city of Khan Younis, as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that has been in effect for nearly two weeks.
With Siegel’s release, Saturday’s hostage handovers were complete.
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 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.
