Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it would free the father of the youngest hostages seized in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and two others including a dual US citizen in the next exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel and Ofer Kalderon will be handed over on Saturday, Hamas armed wing spokesperson Abu Obeida said in a post on his Telegram channel.
Yarden Bibas is the father of baby Kfir, only nine months old when he was kidnapped, and Ariel, who was four at the time of the attack.
There was no word on the fate of Kfir and Ariel, or on their mother Shiri, who was taken at the same time. Hamas said in late 2023 that they had been killed by Israeli bombardment.
Israeli-American Keith Siegel, who was taken hostage with his wife Aviva, was seen in a video released by Hamas last year. His wife was released in the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange in November 2023.
Ofer Kalderon's two children Erez and Sahar, abducted alongside him, were also released in the first exchange.
Four crew members and two rescuers have been killed in an attack by Houthis on a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday, Yemen's transport ministry said, while the US military said it struck a container ship attempting to sail toward an Iranian port.
China's strongest typhoon this year lashed wide swathes of the country, battering the capital with bouts of intense rain that flooded key roads and stranded vehicles, after setting new rainfall records in central and eastern provinces.
At least 44 people died after a passenger ferry capsized in a lake in Zimbabwe on Tuesday, police said, roughly trebling an earlier estimate of the death count after more bodies were found.
Indonesian authorities rescued 172 people on Wednesday after a ferry travelling from the tourist island of Bali caught fire in waters off Lombok, officials said,as the search continued for any other missing passengers.
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