Middle East crisis: Hamas announces further details of Israelis it will free this weekend – as it happened | Israel-Gaza war

Key events

Closing summary

We are now closing the live blog. Here is a summary of events today:

Hamas is to release three more hostages on Saturday in the sixth hostage-prisoner swap under a ceasefire deal with Israel. In exchange, Israel is expected to release 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday, Hamas said.

The three Israelis to be freed on Saturday are: Israeli-Argentinian Iair Horn, 46, Israeli-Russian Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov, 29, and Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen. The Hostages Families Forum said on Friday that it welcomed the “joyous news” of the three men’s impending release.

A freed Israeli hostage said on Friday that Hamas militants starved and tortured him during captivity, as the Red Cross expressed concern over the condition of those still held in Gaza.“When I was in Gaza, I lived in constant fear, fear for my life and my personal safety,” Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American who was freed on 1 February, said in a video statement addressed to US president Donald Trump.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has facilitated the ongoing hostage-prisoner swaps between Israel and Hamas, said on Friday it was “very concerned” about the condition of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. “The latest release operations reinforce the urgent need for ICRC access to those held hostage. We remain very concerned about the conditions of the hostages,” the Red Cross said in a statement on X.

Iran accused Israel on Friday of disrupting flights from Tehran to Beirut, after a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital sparked protests. Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon’s only airport to transfer weapons from Iran. Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have denied Israel’s claims.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio is expected to visit Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates soon to discuss the fragile Gaza ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on 20 February to discuss Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, citing a source with knowledge of the preparations. Speaking on condition of anonymity, another source said the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, would also attend.

Fourteen Palestinian children, many with cancer, have been flown to Italy for medical treatment, the latest among dozens brought from Gaza after the Hamas-Israel war. The children and their families, a total of 45 people, were flown to Italy on an Italian military plane, and greeted at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Thursday evening by foreign minister Antonio Tajani.

Two Jerusalem booksellers detained this week on charges their books were causing “public disorder” have said the experience reflected an intensifying campaign by the Israeli government against Palestinian culture and free speech. Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmed, whose family has owned the Educational Bookshop for more than 40 years, spent two days in detention and will remain under house arrest until Sunday, despite the absence of evidence to support the vague accusations against them.

Turkey will not allow terrorist organisations to take shelter in northern Syria and will not hesitate to take action in that regard, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. The new Syrian administration under Ahmed al-Sharaa appears to be determined to fight those terrorist organisations, Erdoğan said, according to a transcript of his remarks to journalists on his return flight from a trip to Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan.

Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan and US counterpart Marco Rubio discussed Syria and Gaza during their first in-person meeting in Munich on Friday, a Turkish foreign ministry source said. Fidan called for the ceasefire in Gaza to be made permanent, Reuters reports.

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Latest Israeli hostages to be freed are named with ceasefire’s future uncertain

Julian Borger

Palestinian militant groups have provided the names of three hostages they plan to free on Saturday in return for the release of 369 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, raising hopes that the January ceasefire agreement will survive its latest crisis.

However, the longer-term prospects of the truce remain in doubt and the uncertainty has been deepened by the US president, Donald Trump, who made surprise territorial claims over Gaza. Saudi Arabia is reportedly planning to host a summit next week to try to agree an alternative plan for Gaza’s future, a week before an emergency Arab League meeting in Cairo to discuss the situation.

The hostages due to be released on Saturday have been named as Argentinian-born Iair Horn, a dual US-Israeli citizen, Sagui Dekel-Chen and a Russian-Israeli, Sasha Troufanov, who were all abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz near Gaza in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 which ignited the war. Two of them were held by Hamas and one by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The identities of the Palestinians due to be freed have not been published, but they are expected to include 333 Palestinians taken prisoner in Gaza since the start of the war and 36 inmates serving life prison sentences.

Read the full report here:

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‘Time is running out’: frailty of freed hostages raises pressure on Netanyahu

Bethan McKernan

Still frail less than a week after his release from Hamas captivity, and processing the news that his wife, Eynav, was killed during the militants’ attack on 7 October 2023, Or Levy told a crowd in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square that he had insisted his family and doctors allow him to come.

Israelis had been shocked and angered by the gaunt appearances of Levy, 34, Eli Sharabi, 52, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56, last Saturday as they were trooped on to a stage in Gaza City and forced to read out statements before being handed to the Red Cross. After nearly 500 days in captivity, all three appeared to struggle to see in the daylight, and were so weak that armed fighters had to help them walk.

“It was important for me to understand everything you’ve done and continue to do … I genuinely feel that you all played a part in giving me my life back,” Levy told the Tel Aviv crowd on Friday.

“I may be here, but I still have many brothers and sisters in the hell of Gaza, and their time is running out.”

You can read the full report here:

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The Hostages Family Forum has provided images of the three Israeli hostages who are scheduled to be released on Saturday.

Iair Horn, Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov and Sagui Dekel-Chen were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where around 80 of roughly 400 residents were taken hostage during the 7 October 2023 attack, the Associated Press reports.

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Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan and US counterpart Marco Rubio discussed Syria and Gaza among other issues during their first in-person meeting in Munich on Friday, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

Fidan told Rubio about Turkey’s views on measures that regional countries in the Middle East can take against Islamic State, the source said, adding he had also called for the ceasefire in Gaza to be made permanent, Reuters reports.

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‘Who is Trump to decide our fate?’: takeover threat adds to uncertainty in Gaza

by Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and Julian Borger in Jerusalem

One month after the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinians of Gaza have begun improvising a new life amid the wreckage of the old.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Hamas are playing a game of nerves every week of the truce. On Saturday, all eyes will be on the expected release of three more hostages, according to the schedule laid down in the ceasefire agreement. If Hamas fails to deliver, Israel is threatening to go back to war with the same ferocity that turned cities into rubble over 15 months.

Now there is a new, unanticipated blot hanging over Gaza’s already clouded future. Every Palestinian here has heard about Donald Trump’s bizarre plan for the US to “own” Gaza, somehow empty the coastal territory of its 2.2 million people, and build a “Riviera of the Middle East” on their land. No one the Guardian talked to in Gaza treated the threat as a joke, but their reactions were consistent: if one of the most intense, destructive bombing campaigns in history failed to drive them from their homes, then the American real estate tycoon turned president will also surely fail.

“Who is Trump to decide our fate, plan our future, and control Gaza?” said Ayat, a 33-year-old mother of three girls, who returned a week ago to their home in the al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza to find it burned out and partly demolished. “All these plans are nonsense and will fail. Our homes are rubble, and we are living on top of it. How do you expect us to leave?

“They want us to go to Egypt, to the Sinai desert. Where will we live there? They want us to go to Jordan, but it is already full of Palestinian refugees. We do not want to live in other countries, and no one wants us to live in their country.”

Read the full report here:

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Here are some images coming to us over the wires.

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Summary of the day so far

It is approaching 5pm in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 6.30pm in Tehran. Here are today’s key updates:

Hamas is to release three more hostages on Saturday in the sixth hostage-prisoner swap under a ceasefire deal with Israel. In exchange, Israel is expected to release 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday, Hamas said.

The three Israelis to be freed on Saturday are: Israeli-Argentinian Iair Horn, 46, Israeli-Russian Alexandre (Sasha) Troufanov, 29, and Israeli-American Sagui Dekel Chen. The Hostages Families Forum said on Friday that it welcomed the “joyous news” of the three men’s impending release.

A freed Israeli hostage said on Friday that Hamas militants starved and tortured him during captivity, as the Red Cross expressed concern over the condition of those still held in Gaza.“When I was in Gaza, I lived in constant fear, fear for my life and my personal safety,” Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American who was freed on 1 February, said in a video statement addressed to US president Donald Trump.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has facilitated the ongoing hostage-prisoner swaps between Israel and Hamas, said on Friday it was “very concerned” about the condition of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. “The latest release operations reinforce the urgent need for ICRC access to those held hostage. We remain very concerned about the conditions of the hostages,” the Red Cross said in a statement on X.

Iran accused Israel on Friday of disrupting flights from Tehran to Beirut, after a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital sparked protests. Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon’s only airport to transfer weapons from Iran. Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have denied Israel’s claims.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio is expected to visit Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates soon to discuss the fragile Gaza ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on 20 February to discuss Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, citing a source with knowledge of the preparations. Speaking on condition of anonymity, another source said the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, would also attend.

Fourteen Palestinian children, many with cancer, have been flown to Italy for medical treatment, the latest among dozens brought from Gaza after the Hamas-Israel war. The children and their families, a total of 45 people, were flown to Italy on an Italian military plane, and greeted at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Thursday evening by foreign minister Antonio Tajani.

Two Jerusalem booksellers detained this week on charges their books were causing “public disorder” have said the experience reflected an intensifying campaign by the Israeli government against Palestinian culture and free speech. Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmed, whose family has owned the Educational Bookshop for more than 40 years, spent two days in detention and will remain under house arrest until Sunday, despite the absence of evidence to support the vague accusations against them.

Turkey will not allow terrorist organisations to take shelter in northern Syria and will not hesitate to take action in that regard, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. The new Syrian administration under Ahmed al-Sharaa appears to be determined to fight those terrorist organisations, Erdoğan said, according to a transcript of his remarks to journalists on his return flight from a trip to Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan.

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Updated at 14.46 GMT

Iran accuses Israel of disrupting air route to Lebanon

Iran accused Israel on Friday of disrupting flights from Tehran to Beirut, after a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital sparked protests, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon’s only airport to transfer weapons from Iran and struck the area during its war with the Tehran-backed militant group which ended late last year.

The Iranian foreign ministry said that “the threat by the Zionist regime to a passenger plane carrying Lebanese citizens has disrupted normal flights to Beirut airport”. The statement by ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei did not specify the nature of the threat attributed to Israel, but comes after Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee had warned the army was prepared “to thwart” any attempts to transfer funds or weapons to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have denied Israel’s claims that Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International airport was used to arm the militant group, reports AFP.

Baghaei condemned Israel’s “gross and continuous violations of the principles and rules of international law and violations of Lebanon’s national sovereignty”. He also called for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other world bodies “to stop Israel’s dangerous behaviour against the safety and security of civil aviation”.

Lebanon’s directorate general of civil aviation said on Thursday it had “temporarily rescheduled” some flights including from Iran until 18 February as it was implementing “additional security measures”. That date coincides with the deadline for the full implementation of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.

According to AFP, the Israeli military’s Adraee has said that Iran and Hezbollah “have been exploiting … the Beirut international airport through civilian flights, to smuggle funds dedicated to arming” the group.

Late on Thursday, a crowd of Lebanese supporters of Hezbollah blocked the Beirut airport road and burned tyres to protest against the decision to bar the Iranian planes from landing.

AFP images showed young men raising Hezbollah’s yellow flag and holding portraits of the group’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in September, and of Iran’s slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani.

After the airport protests, authorities said they were working to bring back Lebanese passengers stranded in Iran with planes belonging to the Beirut-based Middle East Airlines. But Saeed Chalandari, CEO of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport said on Friday that Iran had rejected the proposal. “Naturally, we do not agree to their request, because if there is to be a flight between the two countries, it must be a two-way flight,” Chalandari told Iranian news agency Tasnim, according to AFP.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, said that Tehran could agree to the Middle East Airlines evacuation flights “on the condition that they (Lebanese authorities) don’t block Iranian flights”.

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Freed Israeli hostage says Hamas ‘starved’ him in captivity

A freed Israeli hostage said on Friday that Hamas militants starved and tortured him during captivity, as the Red Cross expressed concern over the condition of those still held in Gaza, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Hamas is to release three more hostages on Saturday in the sixth hostage-prisoner swap under a ceasefire deal with Israel.

“When I was in Gaza, I lived in constant fear, fear for my life and my personal safety,” Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American who was freed on 1 February, said in a video statement addressed to US president Donald Trump, reports AFP.

Siegel said:

The terrorists kicked me, spat on me, and held me with no water, no light, and no air to breathe. I was starved and tortured, both physically and emotionally.”

The mother of a released Israeli soldier, Liri Albag, told Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that her daughter sometimes had nothing to eat for days, and “at times, they ate food meant for donkeys”.

Shiri Albag, in comments published on Thursday, said there was “minimal hygiene” in Gaza and recalled how her daughter’s captives taunted her with videos of the male hostages being beaten and abused.

The latest allegations of abuse in captivity came as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has facilitated the ongoing hostage-prisoner swaps between Israel and Hamas, said it was concerned about those still in Gaza.

“The latest release operations reinforce the urgent need for ICRC access to those held hostage. We remain very concerned about the conditions of the hostages,” the Red Cross said in a statement on X. It added:

We have consistently reiterated that release and transfer operations should be carried out in a dignified and safe manner.

The ICRC will continue our efforts to see all hostages released, until the last hostage is returned.

During the fifth exchange on 8 February, Hamas forced three hostages to thank their captors in front of crowds of Palestinians gathered to witness their release in Gaza. The emaciated appearance of the hostages shocked their families and prompted the ICRC to call on Hamas to ensure subsequent swaps are more private and dignified.

Palestinian prisoners released to Ramallah hours after the Israelis were freed last Saturday also looked extremely thin, and seven out of 43 needed hospitalisation, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said.

Rights groups and whistleblowers have described a policy of “institutionalised abuse” in Israeli jails and detention centres. Severely reduced rations have led to prisoners emerging emaciated.

The next hostage-prisoner exchange is scheduled for Saturday. Three additional men are to be released.

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