Israel and Hamas begin second hostage-prisoner exchange
Four Israeli soldiers held by Hamas have been released as part of a ceasefire deal that has brought an end to 15 months of brutal fighting in Gaza.
Hostages Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, all aged 20, and 19-year-old Liri Albag, were all serving with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) when they were captured.
Surrounded by armed Hamas fighters, the women waved and smiled as they were led on to a podium in Gaza City before being guided to Red Cross vehicles waiting to take them to a border point to be handed to the IDF.
The women were abducted during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack. Pic: Reuters
“The four returning hostages are currently being accompanied by IDF special forces and ISA forces on their return to Israeli territory, where they will undergo an initial medical assessment,” the IDF said in a statement.
“The commanders and soldiers of the Israel Defence Forces salute and embrace the returning hostages as they make their way home to the state of Israel.”
As they crossed into Israeli territory, the military said the women would be taken to an “initial reception point” where they will be “reunited with their parents”.
They are being freed by Hamas in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners, including 120 who are serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis.
The Israeli soldiers surrounded by masked Hamas fighters. Pic: Reuters
The ceasefire allows for thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to their communities.
However, not long after the soldiers were released, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza until hostage Arbel Yehud was released.
“Israel today received four female soldiers kidnapped from the Hamas terrorist organisation, and in exchange will release security prisoners…” his office said in a statement.
“In accordance with the agreement, Israel will not allow Gazans to cross into the northern Gaza Strip – until the release of civilian Arbel Yehud, who was supposed to be released today, is arranged.”
A Hamas official told the Reuters news agency she was alive and well and would be released next Saturday.
Israel had reportedly demanded she be on the list of the hostages released today. However, she was not included.
It is thought she might be held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in the Gaza Strip.
Arbel Yehud
The multi-stage fragile ceasefire deal – mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt – has so far held, winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and the militant group.
Its first six-week phase includes the release of 33 out of 94 hostages – women, children, men over 50, the ill and wounded – in return for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Among the roughly 250 people taken from Israel during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack which ignited the conflict, some have died in captivity in Gaza, while others have been released or rescued.
Read more:
Who are the hostages who haven’t returned home?
“The Israeli government is committed to the return of all abducted and missing persons,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said in a statement shortly after the soldiers’ release.
In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, a big screen showed the faces of the women.
“We are overjoyed and moved to see Naama standing strong and returning to us,” the family of Naama Levy said in a statement.
“We will not rest until the last hostage returns,” they added.
Karina Ariev, Liri Albag, Naama Levy and Daniella Gilboa were all serving with the IDF when they were captured
The pause in fighting – which started last Sunday and saw three hostages released in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners – is also supposed to enable humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged territory.
What happens after the initial stage of the deal is uncertain.
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The Hamas-backed plan for Gaza
In Gaza, Palestinians have been both celebrating the relief from the bombing and grieving the loss of loved ones and livelihoods.
Two-thirds of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or obliterated.
Thousands of returning displaced Palestinians have found their homes reduced to rubble.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Hamas-run authorities in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Syrian presidency has announced it’s assembling a special taskforce to try to stop nearly a week of sectarian clashes in the southern Druze city of Sweida.
The presidency called for restraint on all sides and said it is making strenuous efforts to “stop the fighting and curb the violations that threaten the security of the citizens and the safety of society”.
By early Saturday morning, a ceasefire had been confirmed by the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who posted on X that Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire supported by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The post went on to state that this agreement had the support of “Turkey, Jordan and its neighbours” and called upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunni factions to put down their arms.
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford reports from the road leading to Sweida, the city that has become the epicentre of Syria’s sectarian violence.
For the past 24 hours, we’ve watched as Syria‘s multiple Arab tribes began mobilising in the Sweida province to help defend their Bedouin brethren.
Thousands travelled from multiple different Syrian areas and had reached the edge of Sweida city by Friday nightfall after a day of almost non-stop violent clashes and killings.
“We have come to protect the [Arab] Bedouin women and children who are being terrorised by the Druze,” they told us.
Arab fighters said they had come to protect the Bedouin women and children
Fighters at a petrol station
Every shop and every home in the streets leading up to Sweida city has been burned or ransacked, the contents destroyed or looted.
We saw tribal fighters loading the back of pickup trucks and driving away from the city with vehicles packed with looted goods from Druze homes.
Shops and homes leading up to Sweida city have been burned or ransacked
Several videos posted online showed violence against the Druze, including one where tribal fighters force three men to throw themselves off a high-rise balcony and are seen being shot as they do so.
Doctors at the nearby community hospital in Buser al Harir said there had been a constant stream of casualties being brought in. As we watched, another dead fighter was carried out of an ambulance.
The medics estimated there had been more than 600 dead in their area alone. “The youngest child who was killed was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby,” one doctor told us.
Doctors said there had been a constant stream of casualties due to violence
The violence is the most dangerous outbreak of sectarian clashes since the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime last December – and the most serious challenge for the new leader to navigate.
The newly brokered deal is aimed at ending the sectarian killings and restoring some sort of stability in a country which is emerging from more than a decade of civil war.
Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.
Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.
As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.
The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.
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Why is Israel bombing Syria?
After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.
He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.
It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.
It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.
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At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.
A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.
The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).
Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.
The training centre in east LA. Pic: NBC Los Angeles
Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”
California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.
“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.
Media and law enforcement officials near the explosion site. Pic: AP
The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.
“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.
“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
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