BRING THEM HOME
Israeli hostage hope as ‘signs of life’ found for 10 captives held in Gaza & Hamas ‘readying for release on Saturday’
Trump gave his chilling ultimatum to Hamas demanding the release of the hostages by Saturday noon
SIGNS of life have been found for 10 captives held in Gaza, with Hamas readying for the release on Saturday.
Following relentless pressure from the US and Israel, with President Donald Trump threatening to ";unleash hell" on the terror group, Hamas signalled its readiness to return to the agreed hostage deal.
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Families of the hostages announced over the past few days received signs of life from their loved ones in captivity by the heinous Hamas.
But just one of these 10 hostages is on the list of the 33 captives that Hamas is supposed to release in the first phase of the ceasefire-hostage deal.
Since the deal took effect on January 19, 16 Israeli hostages have been released.
Alongside the families who have agreed for the signs of life of their relatives to be made public, additional signs of life have been received for two captives whose families have chosen not to go public with the information, according to Channel 12 news.
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Local reports also claim that signs of life have been received for most of the hostages who Israel had believed were alive.
And while some of them are recent, others are relevant for some point in the past.
One overjoyed mum, Anat Angrest, had her soldier son Matan Angrest, 21, snatched by Hamas on the morning of October 7 at the IDF's Nahal Oz base.
She is one of the families that have received a fresh sign of life from her son.
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Speaking to Channel 12, Anat said: "We received information that he is alive and held under harsh conditions.
"He was kidnapped from a tank, covered in burns. He underwent severe interrogations there, we saw it on his face in the video that we decided not to publish yet."
Next Hamas hostage release BEGINS with teen Agam Berger handed over ahead of 2 more Israelis and first foreigners
The worried mum added: "We heard that he is being held there in difficult conditions because he is a soldier, and we do not know what the long-term consequences of this injury are."
Similarly, the family of Yosef-Haim Ohana, 24, said it had received a "clear" signal that he is alive - but shared their fears for his condition following the release of three hostages on the weekend who looked emaciated.
Yosef-Haim was taken from the harrowing Nova desert rave.
The hostage's aunt told Ynet: "We have a clear indication that he is alive.
"There are signs showing that he is alive."
The families of fellow hostages Eitan Mor, 23, twins Ziv and Gali Berman, 27, Omri Miran, 46, and Alon Ohel, 24, received signs of life within the past few days.
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But the family of 20-year-old captive soldier Nimrod Cohen said this week that a returning hostage had recently said they saw him alive eight months ago in poor physical and mental shape.
No more recent signs of life have been seen from him.
Eliya Cohen, 27, is the only captive out of the nine who are to be freed in the current first phase of the deal.
Eliya's mum Sigi said her son had been held with other hostages who had returned home and were chained, gagged, burned with searing hot objects, hung by the feet and starved.
Sigi said the freed hostages told her that her son was being held in a tunnel and had been chained for the entirety of his captivity with little food or daylight.
She was also told he suffers from an untreated bullet wound to the leg that he sustained during the October 7 massacre.
The relieved family of Elkana Bohbot, 34, were also informed by released hostage Or Levy that he was alive and had been held with Or for over a year.
Elkana's mum Ruhama told Israel Hayom that while they had "waited a long time" for the sign and it gave them "some breathing room," they're still worried about him.
Israel has remained optimistic that the hostage deal could be continued and that the next release of hostages can be achieved on Saturday, a source told the Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, Hamas said shortly after that it was keen for the hostage exchange and ceasefire deal to not break down, Reuters reports, after President Trump threatened to "unleash hell".
And on Wednesday Netanyahu issued his cautionary statement following an "in-depth four-hour discussion" with his security cabinet.
He said: "If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF (Israeli military) will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated."
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But tensions are still mounting as the terror organisation's spokesman Sami Aby Zuhri told Al Jazeera that it was "committed" to implementing the previously agreed schedule - but would not release "all" hostages on Saturday like Trump demanded.
It comes as Trump doubled down on his own plans to take over Gaza and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East" and claimed there were "parcels of land" in Jordan and Egypt that Palestinians could move to.
The President met with Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday who told Trump that his country would take in some 2,000 sick children from the war-torn land.
Speaking at the White House, Abdullah added that Egypt would present a proposal on how countries in the region could "work" with Trump on the plan, despite Arab nations and the Palestinians having rejected it outright.
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Trump said: "They only want to be in the Gaza Strip because they don't know anything else, they've never had an alternative.
"They are being killed there at levels that nobody has ever seen - no place in the world is as dangerous as the Gaza Strip."
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