Middle East latest: Israeli hostages' families welcome news that 3 more men will be released

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Zakaria Zubeidi, the most prominent of the Palestinian prisoners released Thursday in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by Hamas, says the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become so violent and unbearable that it's pushing global politics to an inflection point.

Zubeidi, 49, rose to prominence as a militant leader during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, between 2000 and 2005. As the top commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, an armed group affiliated with the secular nationalist Fatah party, he was held responsible for deadly attacks against Israelis.

He later renounced violence in favor of cultural resistance to the Israeli occupation. Israel arrested him again over his alleged involvement in shooting attacks in 2019.

Speaking to The Associated Press Friday from the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he was set free late Thursday into an exultant crowd that hailed him as a hero, Zubeidi condemned the mounting attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and called for the urgent creation of a Palestinian state.

“Our Palestinian people have been living in anxiety for a hundred years. Our Palestinian people need freedom and the establishment of a Palestinian state as soon as possible because the current situation is unbearable,” he said as he greeted a stream of well-wishers in Ramallah. “Every moment is filled with killing, destruction, and displacement.”

Addressing Palestinians, he urged them to “preserve their lives.” Addressing people abroad, he asked the world to push harder for Palestinian freedom.

“Just as the world gave this occupation the right to our land, it must now give us our freedom,” he said.

90 Palestinian prisoners will be released by Israel, officials say

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel will release nine Palestinians serving life in prison and 81 others with long sentences on Saturday as part of the fourth round of exchanges in the ceasefire deal with Hamas.

That's according to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents current and former prisoners. The names of the prisoners have not yet been made public.

In exchange, Hamas will free three male Israelis in Gaza who were taken hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Fifteen hostages have been released so far, as have hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Mother of freed Israeli hostage says Hamas held her daughter at UNRWA facilities

JERUSALEM — The mother of Emily Damari, a British-Israeli hostage released from captivity in Gaza during the first round of exchanges of the ceasefire deal, says Hamas militants held her daughter in facilities belonging to the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency known as UNRWA.

In a post on X, Mandy Damari said Hamas “held Emily in UNRWA facilities and denied her access to medical treatment after shooting her twice.”

UNRWA was founded in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees across the Mideast that fled or were forced from their homes during the war over Israel’s creation. The agency’s operations have become an integral part of life in heavily aid-dependent and impoverished Gaza, especially during the Israel-Hamas war.

Emily is missing two fingers on her left hand, the result of a gunshot wound she sustained during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on her town.

Damari’s statement adds fuel to heavy Israeli criticism of UNRWA, which Israel accuses of being deeply infiltrated by Hamas and other militant groups. The agency denies this. Israel says that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack.

In response to Damari’s post on Friday, Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA’s senior communications manager, said the claims were being taken seriously.

“Claims that hostages have been held in UNRWA premises, even if previously vacated, are very serious,” he said. “We have repeatedly called for independent investigations into claims of misuse and disregard of U.N. premises by Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas.”

On Thursday, Israeli legislation banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil and coordinating with Israeli authorities went into effect.

Israel says Hamas has used UNRWA facilities as cover in a “human shields” strategy in crowded Gaza, which the militant group has controlled since 2007.

Relatives of the Bibas family struggle with the hostages' uncertain fate

JERUSALEM — Relatives of Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas say their "emotions are mixed” as they prepare to welcome him home from captivity without his children.

Bibas, 35, is set to be freed tomorrow in the fourth wave of hostage releases from Gaza. Hamas claims his wife Shiri and his two sons Kfir and Ariel were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel has not confirmed their deaths but says it's gravely concerned for their welfare.

“Our Yarden is set to return tomorrow and we are all so excited, but Shiri and the children have not yet returned. The emotions are mixed, and we are facing very complex days,” wrote their relatives in a statement Friday.

“Please protect Yarden’s heart,” they wrote, “We love you, dear people of Israel and our amazing supporters from all over the world.”

The family — and particularly the orange-haired toddler Kfir, just nine months old when captured — have become household names in Israel, with the color orange coming to symbolize the family’s plight.

Here's how the Rafah border crossing will operate once it reopens

JERUSALEM — A European diplomat says the Rafah crossing, Gaza's only border passage to Egypt, is ready to open for Palestinian medical patients for the first time since Israel seized it almost nine months ago.

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to brief the media, confirmed that as of Friday, Gaza’s southern border crossing was officially ready to operate after Israeli, Egyptian and Palestinian officials overcame their disagreements.

The diplomat said that Palestinians from Gaza – all former border officers with the Palestinian Authority, which administered Gaza before the Hamas takeover in 2007 – will manage the sensitive border, with European Union monitors also present as they were before 2007. Israel has screened the officers to ensure they have no affiliation with Hamas, the official added.

The Palestinian Authority, or PA, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, did not comment. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The European diplomat said that during Phase 1 of the ceasefire agreement that paused the war in Gaza earlier this month, the border crossing would open for wounded and vulnerable Palestinians, including older people and children.

___

By Josef Federman

An Egyptian governor says Rafah crossing is ready to bring wounded out of Gaza

JERUSALEM — The governor of North Sinai in Egypt, a region of mountainous desert on the other side of Rafah crossing, wrote on X that the Rafah crossing was opening to transport wounded Palestinians from Gaza.

“This is a translation of the success of Egyptian policy,” the governor, Khaled Megawer, wrote. “We will begin receiving the wounded.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has announced that Palestinian patients would start evacuating Gaza on Saturday through the Rafah for the first time since Israel seized it almost nine months ago.

Gaza health authorities said the World Health Organization had equipped buses for the journey.

Before Israel captured Rafah in early May last year, shutting the crossing to all civilians, Rafah represented the only escape valve from the besieged territory during the Israel-Hamas war.

EU mission deploys to help prepare reopening of Rafah crossing

JERUSALEM — A European Union civilian mission was deployed Friday to prepare the key Rafah border crossing with Egypt for the movement of Palestinians out of Gaza, the EU foreign policy chief said.

Kaja Kallas said on X that the mission would “support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care.”

The mission arrives as the first group of Palestinian patients are set to leave Gaza through the crossing this Saturday, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The reopening of the crossing, closed since Israel began its offensive on Rafah in May 2024, marks a major step in the implementation of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. Egyptian officials on Tuesday said a delegation from the EU commission and the Palestinian Authority would meet next week in Rafah to discuss how to operate the crossing.

Before Israeli troops captured the crossing, Rafah was the only point where Palestinians could exit the strip during the war.

Hamas releases names of 3 hostages to be freed in next exchange

JERUSALEM — Hamas released the names of three male hostages set to be freed on Saturday, the fourth exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire took effect.

Israeli officials confirmed the list of hostages to be released includes Yarden Bibas, age 35, American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, age 65, and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon, age 54.

The Israeli officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Bibas was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. Photos taken during the abduction appear to show him wounded. His wife, Shiri, and two boys, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken captive at the kibbutz. The boys, who were ages 4 and under 1 year old when they were captured, were the youngest hostages.

News that Bibas will be released has brought renewed attention to the uncertain fate of Bibas' family. Hamas has claimed that Shiri Bibas and the two boys were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israel has not verified the claim.

Military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said recently that the military was seriously concerned about the fate of the mother and her two boys.

Keith Siegel, an American Israeli originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza along with his wife, Aviva Siegel. Aviva Siegel was released during a brief ceasefire period in November 2023, and since then has waged a high-profile campaign to free Keith and the other hostages remaining in Gaza.

Kalderon, a French-Israeli hostage, was captured by the militants from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his two children. His ex-wife, Hadas, was also taken captive. The two children and Hadas Kalderon were released during the hostage exchange in November.

___

Associated Press writer Julia Frankel contributed.

Israeli strikes hit eastern Lebanon, killing 2 people

BEIRUT — Two people were killed and 10 others were wounded in an Israeli strike on an unofficial border crossing in eastern Lebanon early Friday morning, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck “a military site that included underground infrastructure for developing and producing combat equipment, in addition to infrastructure for crossing the Syrian-Lebanese border,” used by the militant group Hezbollah in the Bekaa Valley.

The statement also accused Hezbollah of launching a reconnaissance drone toward Israel Thursday, saying it’s a violation of the ceasefire agreement that halted the Israel-Hezbollah war in late November.

Lebanon’s state news agency said Israel launched four strikes on the Janta border crossing in the eastern province of Baalbeck, while two other strikes targeted two illegal Syria-Lebanon border crossings in northern Lebanon late Thursday and early Friday.

In a statement, Hezbollah legislator Ibrahim Moussawi called the strikes a very dangerous violation and a blatant and explicit aggression,” adding that “the Lebanese state, represented by the presidency, the government and the army, is required to take immediate action.”

Hezbollah has long relied on Iran for weapons, moving arms into Lebanon through Syria. Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem has said that the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad disrupted that route, and that the group will find alternative supply channels.