The Gaza Campaign to End the Second Intifada: The Hamas-Missing Campaign in Gaza Revisited

Hamas committed to freeing 33 hostages in Gaza in exchange for a partial Israeli withdrawal during the initial 44-day cease-fire. The release of Ms. Yehud, the last living female held hostage, had been supposed to take place last week.

The three releases so far are part of a multiphase agreement that hopes to end the war in Gaza. Gazan health officials don’t differentiate between civilians and soldiers, and they say thousands of people were killed there during the Israel campaign against Hamas.

Thursday’s exchange was previously unscheduled. It was negotiated last weekend, after Israel said Hamas was supposed to release Yehoud — a civilian — on Saturday, as one of the four women returned to Israel on Jan. 25. As a result, Israel delayed allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza until arrangements for Yehoud’s release were made. Mediators helped work out Thursday’s release, and passage to Gaza’s north for Palestinians began Monday.

The Thai hostages had been working in Israel as agricultural laborers when they were taken hostage along with the others in the Oct. 7, 2023 The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel took place. Three more Thai laborers remain in captivity, along with two nationals from Nepal and Tanzania, some of whom Israel has declared dead.

Ms. Berger, a young military conscript, was abducted during Hamas’s assault on Nahal Oz, the military base where she served as a lookout. The other four lookouts who were taken hostage were released on Saturday.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, confirmed in a phone interview that the five Thai workers would be released on Thursday. He mentioned a smaller militant group in Gaza named Palestine Islamic Jihad which held the Thai workers.

There will be an exchange for three freed Israeli hostages, as well as the release of over 100 prisoners from Israeli jails. A 2003 suicide bombing at a beachfront restaurant in Haifa that killed 21 people was one of the most deadly attacks of the Second Intifada. Most life sentences will be deported to other countries.

The masked Hamas men handed over Berger to the Red Cross shortly after he was paraded on the stage, wearing green fatigues similar to a soldier’s uniform.

Arbel Yehoud, 29, Agam Berger, 20, and Gadi Mozes, 80, were handed over Thursday morning to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, who transferred them to Israeli troops for the drive across the border into Israel.