People transport their belongings as they drive through the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip toward the north. Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza demonstrate to call on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv. People cheer as they watch three Israeli hostages being released by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, on a large screen in Tel Aviv.
A freed Palestinian prisoner is embraced by family members in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. Hamas fighters stand in formation as Palestinians gather to watch the handover of three Israeli hostages in central Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered negotiators on Saturday to return to Qatar to discuss the fragile ceasefire in the war with Hamas, after the fifth hostage-prisoner swap agreed under the truce was completed. He repeated his vow to crush Hamas and free all remaining hostages, denouncing the militant group as "monsters" after the handover of three captives in Gaza who appeared emaciated and were forced to speak on a stage.
The hospital treating the three Israeli hostages released from Gaza on Saturday said Or Levy and Eli Sharabi were in a "poor medical condition," while Ohad Ben Ami was in a "severe nutritional state". Of the inmates released by Israel in return, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group said seven required hospitalisation and decried "brutality" and mistreatment in jail.
While 41 of those released returned to the West Bank city of Ramallah, four were released in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, were sent to Gaza and seven were deported to Egypt.
The fifth exchange since the truce took effect last month came as negotiations were set to begin on the next phase of the ceasefire, which is intended to pave the way for a permanent end to the war. But senior Hamas official Bassem Naim on Saturday said Israel's "procrastination and lack of commitment in implementing the first phase He also described, in an interview with AFP, the condition of the hostages as "acceptable under the difficult circumstances that the Gaza Strip was living".
