After 491 days in captivity, Hamas will free hostages Or Levy, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami from captivity on Saturday, it was cleared for publication on Friday evening.
Levy, 34, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023. His wife who was with him was murdered. Their three-year-old son, Almog, is waiting for his father to return home.
Sharabi, 52, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023. His wife and two daughters were murdered during the Hamas massacre. Sharabi’s brother, Yossi, was also kidnapped by Hamas and it was later announced that he was murdered while in captivity. Hamas continues to hold Yossi’s body.
Ben Ami, 56, was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, together with his wife, Raz, who was freed in the previous hostage release deal in November of 2023.
The Ministry of Health updated that the hostages will be taken, after an initial medical assessment, to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer. At the same time, Barzilai and Soroka hospitals will prepare to provide medical attention for immediate medical response, if required.
"The medical teams and professional staff in the hospitals are prepared to receive them and do everything required to provide medical, psychological, and any other necessary care," said the Ministry of Health.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it “welcomes the joyful news regarding the expected release of Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi, and Or Levy after 491 days in Hamas captivity.”
“We have the sacred duty and moral right to bring all our brothers and sisters home. We will not give up and will not stop at any stage until all the hostages return home under the current agreement, until the last hostage - the living for rehabilitation and the fallen for a proper burial in their homeland,” it added.
Hamas said Israel is expected to free 183 terrorists in exchange for the release of the three hostages, including 18 who have been serving life sentences, 54 serving long sentences and 111 who were detained in the Gaza Strip during the war.
Under the terms of the agreement with, Israel Hamas was to have submitted the list of hostages to be freed by 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, but the terrorist organization did not do so until almost three hours later, claiming Israel had violated the terms of the deal.
Omer Dostri, the spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commented on the delay by Hamas in transferring the list of hostages and said, "Following the delay in transferring the list of names of the hostages by the Hamas terrorist organization, Prime Minister Netanyahu views any violation of the agreement with utmost seriousness."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)