Israel releases 110 Palestinian prisoners amid hostage handover chaos; Gaza could take 15 years to rebuild - US envoy

There was “almost nothing left” of Gaza and rebuilding the war-ravaged enclave could take 10 to 15 years, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, told Axios in an interview at the end of his trip to the region on Thursday.

Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, on Thursday confirmed the killing of its military leader Mohammed Deif and deputy military commander Marwan Issa in combat.

Israel releases Palestinian prisoners after delay over hostage handover

Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza on Thursday and Israel began releasing 110 Palestinian prisoners after delaying the process in anger at the swarming crowds at one of the hostage handover points.

Arbel Yehoud (29) abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz in the Hamas-led assault on Israel on 7 October 2023, looked fearful and struggled to walk through the crowd as armed militants handed her to the Red Cross in a tense scene in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Another Israeli hostage, Gadi Moses (80) was also released along with five Thai nationals working on Israeli farms near Gaza when the militants burst through the border fence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the sight of their chaotic handover was shocking and threatened death to anyone hurting hostages.

He and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered a delay in the release of the prisoners “until the safe exit of our hostages in the next phases is assured”. The prime minister’s office said later that mediators had committed to ensuring the safe passage of hostages in future handovers.

Later on Thursday, buses arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah carrying some of the 110 Palestinian prisoners to be freed as part of the phased agreement that halted more than 15 months of war in the coastal territory on 19 January.

Women in traditional full Palestinian dresses ululated as buses carrying freed detainees arrived in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, while men chanted: “We sacrifice our souls and blood for you.”

Palestinian health officials said at least 14 Palestinians were hurt by Israeli fire, some with live and rubber bullets, others from gas inhalation, as they gathered at the entrance to Ramallah to welcome the freed detainees.

Video footage showed Palestinians throwing stones towards police and then running away as police began firing.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Some prisoners from East Jerusalem had arrived at their homes while others, who were due to be taken to Gaza or deported to Egypt, had yet to reach their destinations.

Earlier, in Jabalia in northern Gaza, an Israeli soldier, Agam Berger, wearing an olive green uniform, was led through a narrow alley between heavily damaged buildings and over piles of rubble before being handed to the Red Cross.

“Our daughter is strong, faithful, and brave,” said a statement from her family. “Now Agam and our family can begin the healing process, but the recovery will not be complete until all the hostages return home.”

A video released by Netanyahu’s office showed a pale Berger crying and smiling while sitting on her mother’s lap.

Netanyahu has faced criticism in Israel for not having sealed a hostage deal earlier after the security failure that enabled the 7 October Hamas assault.

Hamas, which Israel has vowed to obliterate, still has a strong presence in Gaza despite heavy bombardment from the Middle East’s most advanced military over more than 15 months and the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Al-Sinwar.

“The killing of leaders only makes the people stronger and more stubborn,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said of Sinwar, filmed by an Israeli drone badly wounded throwing a piece of wood at the device in his final defiance of Israel.

The release in Khan Younis took place near the bombed ruins of Sinwar’s house.

The Palestinian prisoners include 30 minors and some convicted members of Palestinian groups responsible for deadly attacks that have killed dozens of people in Israel.

Israelis gathered in what has become known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, cheering and crying as they watched the release on a giant screen. The hostages will be taken to hospital for treatment.

Around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages were abducted in the Hamas attack in Israel, the bloodiest single attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Among the dead and abducted were dozens of Thai agricultural workers.

Israel’s military response has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians and laid waste to the enclave of 2.3 million people, who face severe shortages of medicine, fuel and food.

Around half the hostages were released in November 2023 during the only previous truce, and others have been recovered dead or alive during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans, most displaced repeatedly during the conflict, have returned to their neighbourhoods in the north, where the fighting was most intense. Many have found their homes to be uninhabitable and basic goods in short supply.

Israel still lists 82 captives in Gaza, with around 30 declared dead in absentia.

Rebuilding Gaza could take 10-15 years, says Trump envoy 

There was “almost nothing left” of Gaza and rebuilding the war-ravaged enclave could take 10 to 15 years, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, told Axios in an interview at the end of his trip to the region on Thursday.

“People are moving north to get back to their homes and see what happened and turn around and leave ... there is no water and no electricity. It is stunning just how much damage occurred there,” Witkoff told the news website after visiting Gaza.

Witkoff, a real estate investor and Trump campaign donor with business ties to Qatar and other Gulf states, was in the region to oversee the implementation of a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

His assessment comes days after Trump floated the idea that some Arab nations should get involved with and build “housing at a different location where they [Gazans[ can maybe live in peace for a change”.

Any suggestion that Palestinians leave Gaza, a territory they want to form part of an independent state, has been anathema to the Palestinian leadership for generations and repeatedly rejected by neighbouring Arab states since the Gaza war began.

Witkoff told Axios he had not discussed with Trump the idea of moving Palestinians from Gaza.

A UN damage assessment released this month showed that clearing more than 50 million tonnes of rubble left in the aftermath of Israel’s bombardment could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2-billion.

The debris is believed to be contaminated with asbestos, with some refugee camps struck during the war known to have been built with the material. The rubble also likely holds human remains. The Palestinian Ministry of Health estimates that 10,000 bodies are missing under the debris.

“There has been this perception we can get to a solid plan for Gaza in five years. But it’s impossible. This is a 10 to 15-year rebuilding plan,” Witkoff told Axios.

“There is nothing left standing. Many unexploded ordnances. It is not safe to walk there. It is very dangerous. I wouldn’t have known this without going there and inspecting,” he said.

Hamas confirms killing of its military leader, months after airstrike

Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, on Thursday confirmed the killing of its military leader Mohammed Deif and deputy military commander Marwan Issa in combat.

In August, the Israeli military announced it had killed Deif in an airstrike in Gaza’s Khan Younis area.

Deif and Issa, who Israel also announced it killed in March, were believed to have masterminded Hamas’ 7 October 2023, attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Deif was an elusive figure who had a long and secretive career in the Palestinian group and had been sought by Israel for decades.

Al-Qassam Brigades also announced the death of other three senior members of its general military council, said the group’s spokesperson Abu Ubaida in a recorded speech.

Freed Palestinian prisoner unable to return to embattled hometown

Zakaria Zubeidi’s last, fleeting, taste of freedom involved five days on the run after escaping from an Israeli maximum security prison in 2021, but on Thursday the Palestinian militant was released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Zubeidi, a former leader in an armed group in the West Bank city of Jenin who was involved in deadly attacks two decades ago, flashed a “V-for-victory” sign as he arrived in a bus with other Palestinian prisoners in Ramallah.

However, he may not be able to return home. The Jenin refugee camp where he grew up has turned into a battle zone, with Israel pivoting from the war in Gaza to step up military operations against Hamas in the West Bank.

The fate of Zubeidi, one of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners being released, underscores the growing shift in Israel’s focus to the West Bank and particularly to Jenin, which its forces entered as soon as the Gaza ceasefire began.

But his release also highlights the high stakes at play in an ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to which no political solution appears close.

Under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal, Israel is releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages it seized in the 7 October 2023 attack that set off 15 months of war in the tiny enclave.

Zubeidi was Jenin head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of the main Palestinian party Fatah, throughout the Second Intifada, the armed uprising against Israeli occupation that raged from 2000 to 2005.

Jenin, a crowded township built for descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of the state of Israel, was a focal point for the intifada and a major battle site in 2002.

That conflict made Zubeidi a powerbroker, both in Jenin and in wider Palestinian politics, and he was subject to assassination attempts before being included in a 2007 amnesty deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Zubeidi has said in press interviews that his childhood memories include Israeli forces arresting his father for membership of Fatah and then shooting him in the leg and jailing him for throwing stones at them when he was a teenager.

His mother hosted a children’s theatre group in Jenin run by Israeli peace activists and Zubeidi was a keen participant. She was killed during an Israeli military operation in the camp in 2002, but after the Second Intifada ended Zubeidi again turned to theatre, this time as a director.

Israel arrested him in 2019 on charges of engaging in armed activities. But he and five other prisoners dug a tunnel through the floor of their cell over two years using plates, concealing it with a floorboard.

They clambered through a drainage system and escaped on foot, running through fields. But five days later he and a fellow escapee were discovered hiding in a truck in an Arab village in northern Israel.

Gaza checkpoint to be staffed by scores of armed US contractors

A small US security firm is hiring nearly 100 US special forces veterans to help run a checkpoint in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas truce, according to a company spokesperson and a recruitment email seen by Reuters, introducing armed US contractors into the heart of one of the world’s most violent conflict zones.

UG Solutions — a low-profile company founded in 2023 and based in Davidson, North Carolina — is offering a daily rate starting at $1,100 with a $10,000 advance to veterans it hires, said the email.

They will staff the checkpoint at a key intersection in Gaza’s interior, said the spokesperson, who confirmed the authenticity of the email.

Some people had been recruited and were already at the checkpoint, said the spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity. He did not say how many contractors were already in Gaza.

UG Solutions’ role in the ceasefire deal has been reported, but the email disclosed previously unknown details including the aim of recruiting 96 veterans exclusively with US special operations forces backgrounds, the pay and the types of weapons they will carry.

The deployment of armed U.S. contractors in Gaza, where Hamas remains a potent force after 14 months of war, is unprecedented and poses the risk that Americans could be drawn into fighting as Trump’s administration seeks to keep the Hamas-Israel conflict from reigniting.

Among the risks facing the Americans are gunfights with Islamist militants or Palestinians angry over Washington’s support for Israel’s Gaza offensive.

The document said the contractors would be armed with M4 rifles, which are used by the Israeli and US militaries, and Glock pistols.

The UG Solutions email said its primary mission was “internal vehicle checkpoint management and vehicle inspection”. DM

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