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