Hamas Releases Second Batch of Israeli Captives

Gaza (QNN)- Hamas has released the second batch of Israeli captives held in Gaza as part of the first phase under the ceasefire agreement, after it released seven Israeli captives earlier on Monday.

The 13 living Israeli captives were released on Monday in southern Gaza after they were handed over to the ICRC.

On Monday morning, seven others were also released in northern Gaza.

The 20 captives were named as Bar Abraham Kupershtein, Evyatar David, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Segev Kalfon, Avinatan Or, Elkana Bohbot, Maxim Herkin, Nimrod Cohen, Matan Angrest, Matan Zangauker, Eitan Horn, Eitan Abraham Mor, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Omri Miran, Alon Ohel, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Rom Braslavski, Ariel Cunio and David Cunio.

The Palestinian resistance allowed some of the captives who were still held in Gaza to contact their families just hours before their scheduled release on Monday.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, released a statement regarding the captive-prisoner exchange happening on Monday:

• We declare our commitment to the agreement reached and the timetables associated with it, as long as the occupation [Israel] adheres to them.
• The agreement reached is the result of the steadfastness of our people and the resilience of resistance fighters.
• The resistance was eager to stop the war of extermination, but the enemy thwarted all efforts.
• The enemy failed to recover its prisoners through military pressure, despite its superior intelligence and surplus force.
• The enemy submits and recovers its prisoners through an exchange deal, as the resistance had promised from the beginning.

According to reports, the captives are reported to be in reasonable condition, able to walk without requiring medical assistance—unlike Palestinian detainees released from Israeli prisons, who are often in poor health amid reports of torture, mistreatment, and medical negligence.

About 2,000 Palestinian prisoners are set to be released in exchange for the Israeli captives in Gaza:

• Among them are 1,700 Palestinians from Gaza.
• Another 250 prisoners are serving life or long sentences.
• Of those, 135 will be deported to Gaza or exiled abroad, 100 are expected to be sent to the occupied West Bank, and 15 will be released in occupied East Jerusalem.