Live: Trump threatens Gaza residents with death as his team holds direct talks with Hamas about captives

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (Asra) reported that 456 released prisoners, including 15 medical staff, arrived at the hospital this morning, with most suffering from skin diseases, according to Al Jazeera.

The prisoners were in a state of extreme emaciation, and many were unable to walk due to severe beatings and torture, said Saleh al-Hams, head of the nursing department at the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

One of the prisoners was kept overnight for treatment of lung fibrosis, while all the released prisoners received medication for scabies. The majority had suffered severe chest beatings, resulting in fractured ribs, al-Hams added.

One former prisoner arrived with an amputated hand, and another with an amputated foot due to untreated diabetes.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on X on Thursday that the bodies of the four Israeli hostages Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur had been identified.

Hamas handed over their bodies to Israel on Wednesday night.

Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons overnight reported abuse and torture while being held, Reuters reported. Many of the freed prisoners arrived in a fragile state in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, and Gaza, with some in need of immediate medical attention.

Eyad al-Saudi, from Gaza, expressed relief at his release, but said his joy is incomplete as many others remain imprisoned in difficult conditions.

“During the first period in jail, we were handcuffed and blindfolded for 90 days, you see no one and no one sees us. And we used to sit on our knees or our buttocks for 18 or 20 hours,” he told Reuters.

“Praise be to God, we feel great, but the joy is not complete, why? Because there are young men who are still imprisoned and suffering. The period of captivity was not just being held captive – it was torture, torture beyond description.”

Alaa al-Bayari, a former Palestinian detainee who has reunited with his family in Gaza City, said he had mixed emotions as his young daughters can barely recognise him.

“I’ve been beaten, they left us under the rain, they kept us naked, they threw water at us, electricity was used against us,” al-Bayari told Al Jazeera, adding that many prisoners picked up diseases while in prison.

“I have seen one of the prisoners who lost eighty kilograms in one year,” he said.

A footage by the Palestinian channel Al Quds Today showed the freed Palestinian prisoners stamping on the white shirt Israeli prison authorities made them wear and prostrate on the ground. Many of the detainees were seen taking them off or wearing them inside out as they took off the buses

The text in Arabic on shirts says Israel will pursue its enemies until they are eliminated.

تغطية صحفية: الأسرى المحررين يدوسون ملابس أجبرهم الاحتلال على ارتدائها والتي حملت رموزا وعبارات إسرائيلية pic.twitter.com/YmRQnCmtpN

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 27, 2025

Hamas accused some countries of having "double standards in their discourse regarding Israeli captives" without mentioning Palestinian prisoners and "the abuse they are subjected to" in a statement as the exchange was completed overnight.

"We imposed the synchronisation of the process of handing over the bodies of the enemy’s prisoners with the release of our heroic prisoners to prevent the Israeli occupation from continuing to evade the agreement’s requirements," the statement read, as reported by Al Jazeera.

"We call on the mediators to continue to pressure the Israeli occupation to abide by what was agreed upon."

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some of the latest updates on Israel's war on Gaza: 

• Israeli authorities have suspended the release of 24 Palestinian child prisoners until the identities of the four deceased Israeli captives, released earlier on Wednesday, are confirmed, Al Jazeera reported.

• Buses carrying released Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons arrived in Gaza, Reuters reported on early Thursday.

• Israel handed over 97 Palestinian prisoners exiled from Palestine to Egypt under the ceasefire agreement.

• Israel has returned the body of the unidentified woman from Gaza that Hamas mistakenly sent instead of the Israeli captive Shiri Bibas last week, according to The Reuters news agency.

• In a new statement, Hamas said it is "committed to the ceasefire" and the only way to release the remaining Israeli captives from Gaza is through “negotiation and commitment”.

• Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Palestinian Hamid Fadl Muwafi near the separation wall in the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya, the Wafa news agency reported.

• The Israeli military carried out an air raid in eastern Lebanon, killing a key member of Hezbollah.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

Hamas released the bodies of four dead captives on Wednesday evening to the Red Cross, while dozens of Palestinian prisoners began to be released. 

More than 600 Palestinians prisoners are being released overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, most of them in Gaza, a Hamas official told the AFP. 

According to Al Jazeera,  115 Palestinian prisoners serving life and long sentences are being released. 

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” that four captives' bodies were being released on Thursday by Hamas, saying, “They think they’re doing us a favor by sending us bodies."

Here is what else you need to know: 

• Egypt has rejected Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid's proposal for it to govern the Gaza Strip for eight years or longer
• The UN human rights chief has rejected plans for the annexation of Gaza or the forced transfer of Palestinian from occupied territories
• Turkey's foreign minister told Al Jazeera they fear Israel will resume its war on Gaza once Hamas releases all the captives
• The UN human rights chief accused Israel on Wednesday of an "appalling" war on Gaza and the occupied West Bank

More than 600 Palestinians prisoners are being released overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, most of them in Gaza, a Hamas official told the AFP. 

According to Al Jazeera,  115 Palestinian prisoners serving life and long sentences are being released. Of those, 43 will be released in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, 11 will be returned to Gaza and Ninety-seven Palestinians will be exiled out of the occupied Palestinian territories. 

An additional 445 Palestinians  forcibly  disappeared from Gaza will be released. 46 Palestinian women and children will also be released, Al Jazeera reported. 

The first bus carrying Palestinian detainees arrived in Ramallah early Thursday morning local time, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. 

A bus with the International Committee of the Red Cross was carrying dozens of Palestinians freed from Israel’s Ofer Prison.

The first batch of prisoners includes 37 from the occupied West Bank and 5 from Jerusalem, according to Al Jazeera. 

A Red Cross bus has left Israel's Ofer Prison and is heading to Beitunia in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians are gathered to welcome released Palestinian prisoners, Al Jazeera Arabic reported on Wednesday night. 

Hamas has handed over the bodies of four Israeli captives to the Red Cross in Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported on Wednesday. 

 Al Jazeera said the handover took place in Khan Younis without a ceremony or media presence. 

The UN human rights chief accused Israel on Wednesday of an "appalling" war on Gaza and the occupied West Bank. 

"Nothing justifies the appalling manner in which Israel has conducted its military operations in Gaza, which consistently breached international law", said UN human rights chief Volker Turk.

He made the remarks while presenting a new report on the human rights situation in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

Two students on Friday were expelled from Barnard College, which is part of Columbia University, for disrupting a class as an act of political protest.

The students were part of a group of four who walked into a "history of modern Israel" class on the first day of the spring semester on 21 January to “provide a discursive alternative” to a class they say “dodged questions of Palestinian self-determination and whitewashed the ongoing genocide” in Gaza.

The students distributed fliers, which interim president Katrina Armstrong says contained “violent imagery that is unacceptable on our campus”. 

Three days later, two of the students faced interim suspensions and were banned from all campus facilities. On Friday, they were formally expelled. 

Read More: Columbia's Barnard College is first to expel students over Gaza war

The International Committee for the Red Cross is travelling on Wednesday to a handover site in the Gaza Strip to collect from Hamas the bodies of four dead captives, an Israeli defence official said. 

Israel's Ministry of Health said that it will identify the bodies at the Kerem Shalom crossing. The Red Cross will deliver the bodies from Hamas to Egypt as part of a new agreement. 

Hundreds of Palestinians are currently gathering in Ramallah and Beitunia to welcome Palestinian prisoners who will be released, Al Jazeera reported. 

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee will only refer to the occupied West Bank by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing an internal committee memo sent by Republican chairman Brian Mast, to staffers. 

According to Axios, Mast wrote, “In recognition of our unbreakable bond with Israel and the inherent right of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will, from here forward, refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria in formal correspondence, communication and documentation.”

The move underscores support among Congressional Republicans for Israeli annexation of the occupied territory.