Abdelraouf Arnaout and Rania Abu Shamala
30 January 2025•Update: 31 January 2025
JERUSALEM
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy said Thursday that an American hostage will be released from Gaza on Friday.
“We’re on top of it all – one is coming out tomorrow,” said Steve Witkoff in response to a question from journalists regarding efforts to return Israeli captives holding US citizenship.
Palestinian group Hamas set free three Israeli captives and five Thai workers on Thursday under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel.
The US envoy expressed hope that the Gaza ceasefire agreement will hold until the end.
Witkoff arrived in Israel on Wednesday, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visited the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, he met with the Israeli Finance Minister and leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party, Bezalel Smotrich.
The first six-week phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war that has killed more than 47,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured more than 111,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.
Ten Israeli captives have so far been released in return for 290 Palestinian prisoners since the deal came into force.
Some 110 other Palestinian prisoners are set to be released from Israeli jails on Thursday.
Under the first phase of the deal, 33 Israeli captives are set to be released in exchange for an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 Palestinian detainees.
The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
