The handover of the hostages to the Red Cross took place on Salah al-Din Road, the main highway that runs through the entire Gaza Strip, according to media reports.
A short while later, the Israeli military confirmed that they had gained access to the three men. They will now undergo medical checks in Israel before being allowed to meet with their relatives.
The extremist Islamic Palestinian Hamas has turned every release into a propaganda stunt, where the hostages are paraded on a stage surrounded by large crowds of threatening militiamen. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly reacted to this, and paused the release of prisoners for a few hours in protest against how the hostages were being treated.
During the day, 183 prisoners will be released on the West Bank. All of them are Palestinian men, and many have been convicted by Israel for serious terrorist and violent crimes.
The releases take place every week, as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas reached in the Gaza war in mid-January. The agreement is scheduled to last for six weeks. After that, a new phase will begin, but it has not yet been finalized. And new question marks have arisen regarding the next steps, since President Donald Trump claimed last week that the US would take over the Gaza Strip.
