The hostages were taken into Gaza following Hamas’ attack on 7 October last year, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage overall.
Hamas is set to free three more Israeli hostages and five Thai nationals from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Israel has said.
The Israeli hostages set for release include civilian Arbel Yehud, 29, and military observer Agam Berger, 20, along with an 80-year-old man, Gadi Moses.
A further five Thai hostages would also be released as part of a unilateral move by Hamas, separate from the ceasefire agreement.
In exchange for the Israeli hostages, Hamas is set to release 110 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
If the deal goes ahead, it’ll be the third such exchange since a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas took hold in the Gaza strip earlier this month.
The names of the Thai hostages — believed to be agricultural workers who were captured from their workplaces during Hamas’ 7 October ambush — have not been released.
Thailand’s government said six of its nationals are currently being held captive in Gaza, their names are Watchara Sriuan, Bannawat Seatho, Sathian Suwannakham, Nattapong Pinta, Pongsak Tanna and Surasak Lamnau. Two other Thai hostages are believed to be dead.
Of the Israeli hostages, both Yehud and Moses were captured from the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel on 7 October. Yehud was abducted alongside her partner and his brother, who remain in captivity.
Berger was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz military base on the border with Gaza, where she worked as an observer at the base. She had just started in the position two days prior to the attack according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The names of all the prisoners set to be released from their sentences in Israel are also not known, but include 30 serving life sentences.
Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent former militant leader and theatre director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 is slated as one of the people to be released.
The exchange is one of three such trades since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 19 January. So far, seven female hostages have been freed in exchange for more than 290 Palestinians from Israeli jails.
On Saturday, a fourth hostage release involving three men is scheduled to take place, according to the Israeli government.
The ceasefire agreement was reached this month after a year of painstaking negotiations brokered by United States, Egypt and Qatar.
After multiple delays, Israel began allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return home to northern Gaza as part of the agreement — with many of the returnees finding rubble in place of their homes upon their return.
Additional sources • AP
