Three Israeli hostages are freed by Hamas as Israel releases 369 Palestinian prisoners in exchange. The sixth swap of the ceasefire comes after there were fears the deal could collapse this week. Follow updates in this live page.
Saturday 15 February 2025 16:35, UK
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Three Israeli hostages freed as 369 Palestinian prisoners released
Four Palestinian prisoners taken to hospital in ‘critical condition’
Israeli officials say no released prisoners in critical condition
Sixth swap of ceasefire deal comes on week where agreement was in jeopardy
Watch:Moment three Israeli hostages released
Who are the freed hostages?
What do we know about the Palestinian prisoners?
Explained: The stages of the ceasefire
Live updates by Lauren Russell
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestine campaigners have today marched through central London in what organisers claimed was one of the largest protests since war broke out between Hamas and Israel.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), along with demonstrators from five other groups, gathered in Whitehall at midday before marching to the US embassy in Nine Elms Lane, southwest London, where speeches were made.
The protest came after Donald Trump made a proposal earlier this month for the US to consider taking over the Gaza Strip.
Protesters marched holding signs and banners that included slogans like: “Hands off Gaza” and “Stand up to Trump”.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was one of the speakers outside the embassy who called on “the whole world” to reject Trump’s plan.
A counter-protest by Stop The Hate took place along the route of the march at the junction of Grosvenor Road and Vauxhall Bridge.
The groups were separated by barriers and a marked area protected by police officers to ensure they did not physically come together.
The march was the 24th major pro-Palestine protest in the UK since the 7 October attack in 2023.
Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a phone call with ministers, the heads of the negotiating team and senior defence officials this evening.
The call will take place at 5pm UK time, which coincides with the time Donald Trump’s ultimatum expires.
For context: The US president said the Gaza ceasefire should be cancelled if all remaining Israeli hostages were not returned by noon today.
He warned Hamas “all hell is going to break out” if the hostages were not released.
Earlier today, Trump posted on Truth Social and said Israel will now have to decide what it will do about a deadline for all hostages to be released.
“The US will back any decision they make,” he added.
The Red Cross has continued to express its concern about the way hostage and prisoner releases are being carried out.
“Despite repeatedly calling for all transfers to be carried out in a dignified and private manner, more must be done by all sides, including the mediators, to improve future transfers,” it said in a statement.
Large crowds were seen at the releases of both the Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, as has been the case in previous exchanges.
The Red Cross said it is committed to “acting as a neutral humanitarian intermediary to support the implementation” of the ceasefire agreement.
It also reiterated its “long-standing call for all hostages to be released in a dignified and safe manner, for more aid to enter Gaza and for the Red Cross to have access to all hostages and detainees”.
We have just got the latest images of freed Israeli hostage Iair Horn after he was reunited with his family.
The 46-year-old was pictured by the IDF with his thumbs up as he flew over Toto Turner Stadium in the Israeli city of Be’er Sheva.
In another photo a sign is held up that reads “Eitan, you are next”, referring to Horn’s brother who was kidnapped at the same time as him and remains in Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces earlier today fired at what it referred to as “suspicious vehicles” that were advancing northwards from central Gaza.
It said the vehicles were travelling along a “non-approved” inspection route, “contrary to the terms of the ceasefire agreement”.
Under the first phase of the agreement, Israeli troops have started pulling back into a buffer zone about 0.6 miles wide inside Gaza, along its borders with Israel.
This has allowed many displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, including in Gaza City and the largely isolated northern Gaza.
However, the IDF once again urged Gazans to follow instructions and use the approved inspection route to return to the north.
“The IDF is prepared for various scenarios and will continue to take any necessary action to prevent immediate threats to Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the statement said.
We’ve just brought you the news that Israel has confirmed the release of all 369 Palestinian prisoners (see previous post).
Watch the emotional scenes as they greet crowds in Khan Younis…
Israel Prison Service has issued a statement confirming the release of all 369 Palestinian prisoners is “complete”.
The prison service said they were transferred from several prisons across the country and were escorted by officers from the service’s Nahshon unit with the assistance of Israeli police.
For more details on where the prisoners have been released, see our 5.58am post.
By Diana Magnay, international correspondent
So far, so good. Hell has not broken loose.
The US president says he’ll back whatever decision Israel makes about the release of “ALL HOSTAGES” (Trump’s block caps, not mine), but Benjamin Netanyahu will most likely try and squeeze Hamas through phase one of the ceasefire, to make sure the remaining six hostages scheduled for release are freed.
Phase two though is a different matter. Negotiations were supposed to have begun already but if they have, they have not gathered much headwind. Israel is meant to withdraw all its troops from the Gaza Strip in return for the release of all the remaining (living) hostages and a “sustainable calm” in Gaza.
Netanyahu and his right-wing allies want Hamas conclusively out of the picture – destroyed, annihilated.
Hamas is quite clearly neither of those things and it is questionable whether any resumption of this horrific war could achieve that end, given Israel has failed to date.
Might Hamas cede ground to an alternative form of Palestinian leadership in Gaza? That is what negotiators must sound out.
This ceasefire always was extremely fragile. The party of war is loud in Israel and has Netanyahu’s ear.
Donald Trump’s outrageous comments regarding Palestinian displacement and a Middle East riviera have focused minds amongst Arab states to come up with an alternative plan.
That plan needs to have some kind of form if phase two is to go ahead. The stakes for all concerned are extraordinarily high.
We previously showed you a picture of released hostage Sagui Dekel Chen and his wife Avital together at a reception point in southern Israel (see our 11.27am post).
You can now watch the moment he was reunited with members of his family…
An update to bring you on our 10.26am post regarding the four released prisoners the Palestinian Red Crescent says have been taken to hospital due to their “critical health condition”.
Israeli officials dispute that any of the released prisoners are in a critical condition.
They say two of the released prisoners were evacuated by ambulance.
Another, they say, was in a wheelchair due to an injury sustained when he was captured by the Israel Defence Forces, and the other was also captured in Gaza and has muscular dystrophy.
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