New hostage exchange today between Israel and Hamas , as foreseen in the initial phase of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza . The first to be freed at 7:30 Italian time were the hostages Ofer Calderon and Yarden Bibas , who appeared on a stage set up for the occasion in Khan Younis. Both were handed over to the Red Cross and then returned to Israeli territory and their families.

In Khan Younis, the first to climb onto the rudimentary platform was the kidnapped French-Israeli citizen Ofer Calderon, behind him a large sheet with the faces of the leaders of the Islamist organization killed by the IDF, starting with the military leader Muhammed Deif. The hostage, 54 years old, thin but in good shape, greeted according to script, holding in one hand the farcical certificate of release, while a composed crowd watched him from a safe distance. Then it was the turn of Yarden Bibas, 35, the father of the two children Kfir and Ariel, aged 2 and 5, and husband of Shiri , who should have been the first to be released. Apathetic, distant, Yarden moved slowly among the militiamen, in his first test of life outside of captivity, unaware of the real fate of his children and wife.

In November 2023, militants told him - filmed in a video later made public - that his family had died in an Israeli bombing. On Saturday morning, Yarden was still stuck on that news. Then, his family told him of the "strong concern of the authorities" for his loved ones, but also that the IDF had found no evidence that his family was no longer alive. In the meantime, the script written by Hamas communicators has moved to the port of Gaza. Where on a real stage set up in front of the glittering sea, with the light wind waving the green and Palestinian flags, the fundamentalists accompanied by the arms the 65-year-old Israeli-American Keith Siegel. He had lost a lot of weight, was very pale, wearing a hat and two bags of 'souvenirs' from the Strip, one of which, according to Walla, was for his wife Aviva, released during the first truce but without any gifts from the terrorists.

“Ofer, Yarden, Keith, how good it is to see you home,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “In these hours, all our thoughts are with Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas: I am with them and with all the kidnapped, both living and dead, who have not returned to Israel,” he added. . According to Palestinian authorities, 18 were serving life sentences. More than 100 were from the Strip and had been arrested after October 7 and held without trial. Twelve more hostages are now expected to be freed alive in subsequent rounds of phase one. Negotiations for the second part of the plan will begin next week, which is expected to lead to the release of 24 more hostages still alive. In exchange, the IDF is expected to withdraw completely from Gaza, including the Philadelphia Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.