Hamas has handed over three Israeli hostages while dozens of Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons in exchange, in the latest stage of a truce aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli dual national and Yarden Bibas were handed over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before being transferred to Israel.
Israeli-American Keith Siegel was handed over separately a few hours later at the Gaza City seaport.
Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri and their sons, ten-month-old Kfir and four-year-old Ariel, were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October 2023.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother Shiri were killed in an Israeli airstrike. There has been no word on them since.
Israel demanded information from mediators who brokered the ceasefire about the fate of the family members.
"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," Gal Hirsch, Israel's hostage coordinator, said in a statement.
"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."
In a statement through Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the Bibas family said "a quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months" following the 35-year-old's release.
"But the home remains incomplete," the family said, adding they would "continue with hope and the call for the return of Shiri, the children, and all the hostages".
After the release of the hostages, 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released in the exchange.
Among them, 150 arrived in Gaza while 32 got off a bus in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where they were greeted by large crowds.
One freed prisoner will be exiled to Egypt, according to the Hamas prisoners' media office.
"I feel joy despite the journey of pain and hardship that we lived," said Ali Al-Barghouti, who was serving two life sentences in an Israeli jail.
"The life sentence was broken and the occupation will one day be broken," added Barghouti, as the crowd around him in Ramallah chanted "Allah Akbar (God is the most great)".
First Palestinian patients allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt
At the newly reopened Rafah crossing on the southern border, the first Palestinian patients to be allowed to leave Gaza, including children suffering from cancer and heart conditions, were expected to cross over to Egypt in a bus provided by the World Health Organization.
It will be opened initially for 50 injured militants and 50 wounded civilians, along with the people escorting them, with a further 100 people, most likely students, probably allowed through on humanitarian grounds.
Mohammad Zaqout, a senior official in Gaza's health ministry, however, criticised the limited number of patients allowed to travel for treatment, saying that around 18,000 people needed better healthcare.
In Israel, crowds gathered at the location in Tel Aviv known as Hostage Square to watch the release in the morning of the Israeli hostages on giant outdoor screens, mixing cheers and applause with tears as the three men appeared.
The hostage handover saw none of the chaotic scenes that overshadowed an earlier transfer on Thursday, when Hamas guards struggled to shield hostages from a surging crowd in Gaza.
But it was once again an occasion for a show of force by uniformed Hamas fighters who paraded in the area where the handovers took place in a sign of their re-established dominance in Gaza despite the heavy losses suffered in the war.
Mr Kalderon, whose two children Erez and Sahar were released in the first hostage exchange in November 2023, and Mr Bibas both briefly mounted a stage in Khan Younis, in front of a poster of Hamas figures including Mohammad Deif, the former military commander whose death was confirmed by Hamas this week, before being handed over to the Red Cross officials.
"Ofer Kalderon is free! We share the immense relief and joy of his loved ones after 483 days of unimaginable hell," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.
Eighteen hostages, including five Thais freed on Thursday, have now been released in exchange for 400 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Negotiations are due to start by Tuesday on agreements for the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in a second phase of the deal.
During the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 children, women and older male hostages as well as sick and injured, were due to be released, with more than 60 men of military age left for a second phase which must still be negotiated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday with the ceasefire in Gaza, and a possible normalisation of relations with Saudi Arabia as part of a postwar deal likely to be a focus.
The initial six-week ceasefire, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, has so far stayed on track despite a number of incidents that have led both sides to accuse the other of violating the deal.
Mr Netanyahu's government, which has hardliners who opposed the ceasefire deal, and Hamas say they are committed to reaching an agreement in the second phase.
However, prospects for a durable settlement remain unclear.
The Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli figures.
Israel's campaign in response has destroyed much of Gaza and killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities.
