Updates: Israel releases 369 Palestinians after 3 captives freed in Gaza

The live page is now closed.

Read about Palestinians reporting experiencing severe malnutrition and physical abuse in Israeli prison, here.

See the satellite images, which show how Israel has destroyed dozens of homes in Gaza in a possible breach of ceasefire terms, here.

We will be closing the live blog soon. Here’s a brief recap of the day’s main events:

• Israel has released hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails after the release of three Israeli captives held in Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal.
• Four Palestinians released from Israeli detention are in critical condition and have been hospitalised in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
• An Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region of south Lebanon has killed at least two people and wounded four.
• Far-right former Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir urged the government to restart the Gaza war after Trump’s demand for Hamas to release all the captives by Saturday went unmet.
• The Arab League urges the international community to pressure Israel to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip, saying the current pace is “unacceptable”.

Jose Andres, who heads the nonprofit food relief group, has said that a World Central Kitchen mobile bakery in Gaza is producing more than 50,000 loaves of pita daily.

“Thanks to the brave amazing teams working day and night to distribute meals to shelters, camps, medical facilities,” he wrote on X. “More mobile bakeries on the way!”

Palestinians in Gaza have been suffering from a dire lack of food and other humanitarian supplies.

I’m so proud of the @WCKitchen mobile bakery in Gaza…operating 24/7 and producing more than 50,000 loaves of pita every day. Thanks to the brave amazing teams working day and night to distribute meals to shelters, camps, medical facilities…and thanks to my friend… pic.twitter.com/goIXFBBdbl

— Chef José Andrés 🕊️🥘🍳 (@chefjoseandres) February 15, 2025

In a brief social media post, Canada’s foreign affairs department has said it “fully support[s] the ceasefire agreement and call[s] on the parties to return to negotiations on future phases”.

“Canada welcomes the release of three more Israeli hostages, who can now be reunited with their loved ones after almost 500 days in captivity,” the post reads.

Hamas released three captives in Gaza, and Israel freed hundreds of Palestinians, despite earlier fears the ceasefire was on the verge of collapse.

Netanyahu keeps putting wrenches in the wheels of the ceasefire … all to avoid the responsibilities that Israel has to carry [out] in phase two, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

You add to that the new wildcard called Trump. The American president has stepped in on more than one occasion now in the past few days, including today.

He was edging the Israelis to do more in terms of violence, basically telling them that if not all the captives are released by midday today, that they should actually resume the war.

The American influence here is not exactly towards peace but rather towards war. So phase two is up for grabs. In my opinion, it’s in jeopardy.

Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators have marched through central London to protest Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip.

Waving Palestinian flags and brandishing placards saying “hands off Gaza”, several thousand people walked from Whitehall, in Westminster, to the US embassy in Nine Elms, in southwest London on Saturday.

Protesters also held banners that read “Stand up to Trump” and “Mr Trump, Canada is not your 51st state. Gaza is not your 52nd”.

Read more here.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman because it has been banned by Israel and the Palestinian Authority from reporting inside Israel and the occupied West Bank.

We can expect the [Israeli] security cabinet to convene on Sunday to discuss how they are going to walk through negotiations for phase two of this deal, which have remained largely stalled.

Reports within Israeli media say that the prime minister wants to extend phase one of the deal in order to release as many captives as possible – so not necessarily go to phase two just yet.

There was a wild card that was thrown into the deal after US President Trump announced his plans for the US to own Gaza and to expel the more than 2 million Palestinians who live there.

Now, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is making his first trip to Israel. He’ll meet with the prime minister on Sunday. Marco Rubio has said that he supports Trump’s vision for Gaza, and he wants to work alongside the Israelis to essentially make it happen.

So while there are talks [about] an extension of phase one, perhaps for phase two of this deal, it’s a little bit unclear about exactly where this is going to go because the right wing within Israel – like Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners – want to restart the war.

There have been numerous Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past few hours, as reported by the Wafa news agency:

• Israeli settlers injured a young Palestinian man in the head as they threw stones at residents in the town of Surif, northwest of Hebron.
• Amid multiple Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces arrested several workers from the town of Sur Baher, south of occupied East Jerusalem.
• Israeli troops have forced a Palestinian man to demolish his house in the neighbourhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem.
• Israeli settlers burned tents belonging to Palestinian residents and attacked vehicles with stones in the al-Maniya area, southeast of Bethlehem.
• Israeli settlers attacked residents in the village of Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, and shot at their homes with live ammunition.

The former US vice president has said she feels “grateful” that Sagui Dekel-Chen – an American who was among the three captives released from Gaza today – was “finally reunited with his loved ones”.

“All the hostages remaining in Gaza, including Americans, must be brought home,” Harris wrote in a social media post.

Harris, who lost last year’s US presidential election to Trump, faced anger and protests on the campaign trail for the Biden administration’s failure to apply concrete pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza.

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance annually. Researchers at Brown University estimated last year that the Biden administration had provided its ally with an additional $17.9bn during the war.

Welcome home, Sagui Dekel-Chen. Doug and I are grateful to see our fellow American citizen finally reunited with his loved ones after being held hostage in Gaza for 498 days. Sagui and his family have shown extraordinary strength through a horrific ordeal. As Sagui’s father,…

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) February 15, 2025

As we’ve been reporting, thousands marched in the British capital to denounce Trump’s push for the US to “take over” Gaza and forcibly displace Palestinians.

Check out Al Jazeera’s report from the protest, in the video below.

Four Palestinians released from Israeli detention as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal are in critical condition and have been hospitalised in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israel released 369 Palestinians on Saturday in exchange for three captives in Gaza.

Palestinians frequently report experiencing severe malnutrition and physical abuse in Israeli prisons.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said that the condition of the released prisoners shows the “extent of the crimes and violations inside the prisons”.

Read more here.

The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) have expressed support for “the full implementation” of the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

That includes “the release of all hostages and the expansion of humanitarian aid in Gaza”, they said in a statement on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that was also signed by the high representative of the European Union.

The G7 is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“The G7 members stand behind the ongoing efforts of Egypt, Qatar and the United States in continuing to work towards a permanent ceasefire,” the statement reads.

Earlier we reported that an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon killed three people and wounded five others, citing a statement from the Lebanese Civil Defence

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency has since reported that an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region of south Lebanon killed at least two people and wounded four, in what may be a reference to the same attack.

Alvin Botes, South Africa’s deputy international relations minister, says a new movement seeking to block weapons transfers to Israel comes in response to the country’s failure to abide by provisional steps ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

South Africa – which brought a case before the ICJ accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza – is among nine countries from the Global South that late last month launched the so-called Hague Group.

They have pledged to prevent the provision or transfer of weapons to Israel, including via vessels docking in their waters, among other measures.

“Our ambition as the Hague Group is that we should obviously be able to mobilise a broader constellation of countries that are conscious and are grieved by what has happened to the Palestine people,” Botes told Al Jazeera.

“Consistently, Israel was just not adhering to any of the provisional measures of the court. The question then comes up … what else can be done?” he said.

“That’s why this is a constellation of states that have said, we invoke our right in terms of international law to enforce global accountability in regards to the conduct of the State of Israel.”