By AARON BOXERMAN and ADAM RASGON NYTimes News Service
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Hamas gunmen released three more hostages and Israel freed more than 180 Palestinian prisoners Saturday, quickly conducting the latest exchange in a tense ceasefire deal and avoiding the chaos that marked a drawn-out transfer earlier this week.

Hamas released two of the hostages, Yarden Bibas, 35, and Ofer Kalderon, 54, in a highly theatrical ceremony in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The group then released the third hostage, Keith Siegel, a 65-year-old American-Israeli, in a separate ceremony in Gaza City. The three, escorted by Red Cross workers, then headed to hospitals in Israel, where they reunited with their families after 15 months in captivity.

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In exchange, Israel said it had released 183 Palestinian prisoners. Buses carrying the freed Palestinians reached the city of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to video from the scene, where a crowd of people greeted them. The Red Cross also brought a group of freed prisoners to the European Hospital in Khan Younis, according to a doctor there and a Hamas-linked Palestinian prisoner information center.

Israelis watched live broadcasts of the hostages being released from what has become known as “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv, Israel, cheering as the three were handed over. Relatives expressed relief and joy as well as sadness that their family members had spent so much time in captivity.

“This moment came 484 days too late,” Ifat Kalderon, Ofer Kalderon’s cousin, said in an interview with Kan News, the Israeli public broadcaster. “But it has finally happened.”

In Khan Younis, some Palestinians cried and others were joyous when the freed prisoners arrived at the European Hospital, according to Saleh al-Homs, the doctor there.

Some of those released had been serving life sentences in Israel after being convicted of involvement in deadly attacks. Israelis view these prisoners as murderous terrorists and have lamented their release. But Palestinians often view them as freedom fighters against Israel.

“They were happy to see the prisoners return,” al-Homs said, “but saddened by the heavy price that was paid.”

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s devastating bombing and ground campaign, according to Gaza’s health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. In the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that set off the war, about 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were abducted, according to Israeli officials.

The exchange Saturday was the fourth in a multiphase ceasefire deal that Israel and Hamas agreed to last month. Under the deal, Hamas pledged to free at least 33 of the 97 remaining hostages over the first six weeks, in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel. More than 30 of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead. Mediators hope the deal will lead to the end of the war, which has left wide swaths of Gaza in ruins.

As the hostage and prisoner exchange took place, another milestone in the ceasefire deal was reached, as sick and wounded people were allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt through the Rafah border crossing for the first time in nearly nine months.

Reopening the crossing, a major conduit connecting Gaza to the outside world, was a central piece of the ceasefire agreement. The crossing closed after Israel invaded Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, in May.

But officials in the Gaza Health Ministry said that only 50 out of the thousands of ill and injured people in need of treatment outside Gaza would be able to cross Saturday. Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, a World Health Organization official, said 12,000 to 14,000 people require treatment outside Gaza for severe injuries and chronic illnesses.

In Khan Younis, al-Homs said many of the Palestinian prisoners freed Saturday had lost weight, and a few needed support to walk after enduring tough conditions in Israeli jails.

“Some of them — maybe four or five — I knew personally; they also worked in the Health Ministry,” he said in a phone interview. “But I struggled to recognize them.”

Among those released Saturday was Shadi Amouri, who was serving multiple life sentences for his involvement in a 2002 suicide bombing that killed 17 people in Israel, most of them off-duty soldiers. Amouri, like six of the other Palestinians released Saturday, will be expelled to another country and not allowed to return to his home in the West Bank, according to the ceasefire terms.

Another Palestinian freed Saturday was Mohammad El Halabi, a humanitarian worker whose conviction in Israel on charges of funneling aid funds to Hamas prompted an outcry from rights groups. His employer, World Vision — a well-known Christian relief organization — said an independent investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing, and Halabi’s family and lawyer also disputed the accusations.

The exchange Saturday came as Arab nations presented a united front against President Donald Trump’s recent call for Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians as part of an effort to, in Trump’s words, “clean out” the enclave.

Egypt and Jordan immediately spurned that suggestion, and on Saturday, the two countries were joined by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

They issued a joint statement warning that any plan that encouraged the “transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land” would threaten stability in the region and “undermine the chances of peace and coexistence among its people.”

Trump sent a representative, real estate investor Steve Witkoff, to help broker the current ceasefire deal, but his long-term vision for Israel and the Palestinians remains unclear.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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