The Israeli government has laid out plans for how today’s release of hostages is expected to unfold.
This is not the first exchange for hostages and prisoners. In previous swaps, Hamas staged macabre ceremonies before handing over people they kidnapped.
But this time around, there will be no Hamas propaganda displayed and no “sick displays” by the Palestinian militant group, Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office, said Sunday.
Instead, the 20 living hostages held in Gaza will be released to the Red Cross “and transported among six to eight vehicles,” Bedrosian said.
The hostages will be reunited with their families before being sent for treatment at three different hospitals, according to the Israeli government.
There will be a ceremony for the hostages returned dead, and an international task force will help retrieve any bodies not returned during the 72-hour window that Hamas had to release those it still held.
After the hostages have been safely transferred into Israeli territory, the agreed-upon Palestinian prisoners and detainees will be released by Israel.
Israel must free 250 Palestinian prisoners who hold life sentences, as well as 1,700 Palestinians from Gaza detained after October 7, 2023.
A spokesperson from Israel’s prison services said the inmates serving life sentences due to be released had been taken to deportation complexes in Ofer and Ketziot prisons in Israel’s south on Saturday.
According to Israel, 142 of those prisoners will be deported. The rest will return either to the occupied West Bank or East Jerusalem.