Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We know about the three hostages, Emily Damari, a British-Israeli citizen, and Romi Gonen, an Israeli,
00:07were both taken hostage by Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7th, 2023.
00:13They were both participants.
00:15They both were taking part in a music festival that took place here in southern Israel, not far from the border.
00:23The third person taken, Doron Steinbrecher, also a young woman,
00:28she was taken from her bed in a kibbutz also not far from here.
00:32She had not yet woken up that day.
00:34These are three civilians.
00:36It was unknown until just very recently whether the three Israelis released today would be conscripted soldiers or civilians,
00:44and now we have that answer.
00:46And what do we know at this stage then about the Palestinian prisoners
00:49that are going to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages?
00:55So we know that 30 Palestinian prisoners are going to be released in exchange for each one of these young women.
01:03We don't know the names of the 90 to be released today, but the Israeli authorities have released a general list.
01:11Some of the most prominent of these prisoners include Khalida Jarar.
01:16She's 62 years old.
01:18She's a member of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, not at all a Hamas member,
01:25and she's been held basically without any formal charges by Israel for much of the last decade.
01:33Then we have the names of four others convicted terrorists,
01:38Zakaria Zubeidi, who is very famous in Israel for having been part of a kind of spectacular escape from Israeli prison in 2021,
01:47and Wissam Abassi, Mohamed Odeh, and Wael Qasim.
01:51All four of these were convicted of crimes in the second intifada,
01:57so about 20 years ago, and they're set to be unconditionally released as of this evening.
02:03Now, just to recap, remind us of the main terms of the ceasefire agreement, or at least the first phase of the deal.
02:13Right, it's important to note it's a three-phase deal.
02:16In this early first phase, which is set to last 42 days or six weeks,
02:22what we will see, what we expect to see, is in fact a ceasefire, a stoppage of military hostilities on all sides.
02:31We also expect to see regularly, but not daily.
02:34So about once a week, Hamas is committed to releasing Israeli hostages.
02:40Most are civilians. Some are conscripted soldiers who are mostly in their late teens.
02:46Israel is expecting to receive their names one day before their release.
02:52That was the hitch earlier today.
02:54And then Israel will release in exchange 30 Palestinian prisoners or detainees for every civilian
03:02and 50 for every military hostage who is released.