By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel has released the Palestinian manager of the Gaza branch of World Vision, a prominent Christian aid organization, who had been behind bars since 2016.
Mohammed el-Halabi was among 183 Palestinian prisoners set free on Saturday in exchange for three Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for allegedly diverting tens of millions of dollars to Hamas.
El-Halabi, 47, and World Vision vigorously denied the allegations of financially supporting Hamas, and critics said “independent investigations” found “no proof” of wrongdoing. Israel disagrees.
In footage reviewed by Worthy News, freed Palestinian detainees were greeted in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip after their release by Israel as part of a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and the Jewish nation.
They arrived after French-Israeli dual national Ofer Kalderon and Israeli citizen Yarden Bibas were handed over to the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, reporters witnessed.
Over an hour later, American-Israeli dual national Keith Siegel was handed over to Red Cross officials in Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave.
RELEASING PALESTINIANS
That prompted Israel to release the Palestinian detainees despite concerns that convicted terrorists and Hamas supporters are among them, potentially creating the breeding ground for a new armed conflict.
Some 25 of them are said to have gone to Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. While seven will be deported to Egypt, with the rest being sent to Gaza.
Yet for Israelis being freed Saturday, the joy was overshadowed by the realization of the suffering of those staying behind.
Hamas has said that eight of the remaining 20 hostages set to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire deal are dead.
After this initial stage, there will still be 79 hostages left behind.
Yarden Bibas, an Israeli father who Hamas kidnaped along with his wife and two young children, said he faced an “unbearable reality” after being released by the terror group without his family.
Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, agreed, saying he was “deeply concerned” for the wellbeing of Shiri Bibas and her two sons – Ariel, five, and Kfir, two, who was only nine months old when Hamas gunmen took him.
HANDED OVER
Bibas, 35, was handed over on Saturday as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel, as well as Siegel, 65, and Kalderon, 54.
Under the agreement, living women and children taken hostage by Hamas should have been freed first, Israeli sources said.
Hamas, designated as a terror group by Israel and most of its allies, has said the three other members of the Bibas family “were killed in an air strike,” but Israel says it has been unable to verify this claim.
Observers say Hamas statements could be a cruel psychological ploy as if also said that soldier Daniella Gilboa had been killed, when in fact she was alive, before her release last week.
Israel on Saturday demanded information from mediators who brokered the ceasefire in Gaza on Saturday surrounding the fate of the Bibas family.
In a statement, Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, said: “Yarden has returned home. But his wife Shiri and his children Ariel and Kfir have not. We have been searching for them for a long time, tracking their traces and investigating their fate.
“The Bibas family… has been living in constant fear for their lives for a long time…We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators.”
HORRIFIC SYMBOL
Images of Shiri’s kidnap and the two red-headed boys – the youngest hostages held by the terror organization – have become symbols of the most deadly day for the Jewish community since the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, commentators said.
The Bibas family said in a statement, “A quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months. There are no words to describe the relief of holding Yarden in our hands, embracing him, and hearing his voice. Yarden has returned home, but the home remains incomplete.”
The family added that “Yarden is a father who left his safe room to protect his family, bravely survived captivity, and returned to an unbearable reality.”
While the hostages were released, the Rafah terminal that marks the crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt was reopened for the first time since May for medical evacuations.
One young girl, whose foot had been amputated, was being loaded into an Egyptian ambulance, witnesses said.
EXIT POINT
For a period earlier in the war, Rafah was the exit point for Palestinians with dual passports, employed by foreign organizations, or with the financial means and connections to pay to be put on an Egyptian list to leave.
But since Israeli forces launched an offensive in and around the southern city of Rafah in May last year, the border has been closed to most people. The opening of the crossing to 50 children and their families was an essential part of the Gaza ceasefire deal that envisages further regular evacuations.
Israel countered that it had permitted several medical evacuations since May, including 55 patients in December.
However, critics said, “It has been a drop in the ocean.” Last week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that 2,500 children needed immediate evacuation.
Israel’s government has defended its policies, saying Hamas has misused ambulances to transport weapons and fighters.
It also recalled that besides the roughly 250 people who were abducted at the time, Hamas murdered some 1,200 people on that “black sabbath” on October 7, 2023.
The atrocity sparked a war in which nearly 47,000 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, according to Hamas-controlled authorities. Israel’s government has said, however, that it killed at least 20,000 Hamas fighters, and experts have questioned the death toll provided by the Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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