GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Two Hamas sources told AFP that some of the hostages seized in the October 7 raids on Israel were on Friday handed over to the Red Cross for return to Israel, via Egypt.
“Half an hour ago, the prisoners were handed to the Red Cross who will take them to the Egyptians” at the Rafah crossing, one of the sources said.
“They were handed over to the Egyptian side,” the source added.
A source in the military wing of Hamas confirmed the handover, adding: “This is the first group under the agreement.”
A first tranche of 13 women and children hostages were expected to go back to Israel on Friday after a cease-fire between Israeli and Hamas went into effect in the Gaza Strip in the morning.
Israel is set to release three times as many Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails — women and teenage boys — under the terms of the deal reach with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Hamas broke through Gaza’s militarised border with Israel on October 7 to kill, according to Israeli officials, about 1,200 people and seize around 240 Israeli and foreign hostages.
Israel has vowed to “crush” Hamas in response and unleashed a withering military campaign that Gaza’s Hamas government says has killed nearly 15,000 people in the coastal territory.
Hamas sources say Israel hostages handed over to Egypt
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Hamas sources say Israel hostages handed over to Egypt
- “Half an hour ago, the prisoners were handed to the Red Cross who will take them to the Egyptians” at the Rafah crossing, one of the sources said
- A source in the military wing of Hamas confirmed the handover, adding: “This is the first group under the agreement”
US resumes food aid to Somalia
- The United States on Thursday announced the resumption of food distribution in Somalia, weeks after the destruction of a US-funded World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse at Mogadishu’s port
NAIROBI: The United States on Thursday announced the resumption of food distribution in Somalia, weeks after the destruction of a US-funded World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse at Mogadishu’s port.
In early January, Washington suspended aid to Somalia over reports of theft and government interference, saying Somali officials had “illegally seized 76 metric tons of donor-funded food aid meant for vulnerable Somalis.”
US officials then warned any future aid would depend on the Somali government taking accountability, a stance Mogadishu countered by saying the warehouse demolition was part of the port’s “expansion and repurposing works.”
On Wednesday, however, the Somali government said “all WFP commodities affected by port expansion have been returned.”
In a statement Somalia said it “takes full responsibility” and has “provided the World Food Program with a larger and more suitable warehouse within the Mogadishu port area.”
The US State Department said in a post on X that: “We will resume WFP food distribution while continuing to review our broader assistance posture in Somalia.”
“The Trump Administration maintains a firm zero tolerance policy for waste, theft, or diversion of US resources,” it said.
US president Donald Trump has slashed aid over the past year globally.
Somalis in the United States have also become a particular target for the administration in recent weeks, targeted in immigration raids.
They have also been accused of large-scale public benefit fraud in Minnesota, which has the largest Somali community in the country with around 80,000 members.
