Middle East latest: Hamas says it is ready to negotiate the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire

Hamas said Thursday it was ready to negotiate the the next phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after a swap overnight in which it handed over what it said were the remains of four hostages in exchange for the release of more than 600 Palestinian detainees held by Israel.

It was the final such exchange the two sides agreed to as part of a truce that's set to end this weekend. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more prisoners and a lasting ceasefire, have not yet begun.

An Israeli official says the military will not withdraw from a strategic corridor along the Gaza Strip's southern border. The pullout was part of the ceasefire and Israel's refusal could spark a crisis with Hamas and key mediator Egypt at a sensitive moment for the fragile truce.

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Here's the latest:

Freed Palestinian teen says Israel mistreated detainees from Gaza

One boy released back to Gaza, 17-year-old Mohamed Abu Sahloul, said his Israeli captors kept him constantly bound in detention.

“I swear, I could not believe that they (the restraints) were removed from my hands. Twenty-four hours! You sleep with your hands and feet tied,” he told a group of people welcoming him home.

Rights groups and freed prisoners say Palestinians in military detention have been tortured, beaten frequently, deprived of adequate and food and water, and held blindfolded and handcuffed.

“Bad things happened to me, not just me,” said Abu Sahloul. “Every young man who was arrested, ask him about the situation, he will tell you. No one can describe what happened to him.

“I was in a nightmare, I was in hell, and finally I got out of the hell that I was in,” he said.

Palestinian mothers hug their gaunt sons after Israel frees detainees

Nidaa Abu Sahloul said she was crying “tears of joy” upon seeing her son, even though she said he was unrecognizable. “They took him with more muscles and weight,” she said.

Another mother, Zenat al-Samoni, collapsed as her son ran toward her, kissing the ground beneath her feet. “Thank God. I am happy with all my heart that I saw my son. He has changed a lot.” she said.

It was not clear if either had been charged with a crime. Israel’s justice ministry said it was not publishing names or information of minors detained from Gaza.

Dozens of Palestinians ages 15-19 and two women were released back to Gaza on Thursday. As their friends and relatives dispersed, one of the women was visible being escorted through the crowd by her family. Her face covered, she did not look up.

Suspected car ramming attack in Israel wounds at least eight

Israeli police are investigating an episode in which a driver rammed his car into people at a highway bus stop, wounding at least eight Thursday in what authorities believed was a militant attack.

Police said they had apprehended the suspect but did not say whether he had been killed. Police described him as a 53-year-old Palestinian from the northern West Bank who lived in Israel and was married to an Israeli citizen.

Medical workers said the ramming injured at least eight people, two in serious condition, who they evacuated to the hospital.

Paramedic Avi Cohen described a chaotic aftermath at the scene in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, a town south of the coastal city of Haifa.

“When we arrived, they were lying on the ground. We immediately began providing medical treatment to all the injured, including stopping bleeding and bandaging wounds,” he said in a statement from Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency rescue service.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, violence by militant attackers against Israelis has risen, as deadly Israeli military operations have ramped up and attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have climbed.

Hamas congratulated the attack as “a message of defiance” but did not claim responsibility.

Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich will meet with US Treasury secretary in Washington

It would mark the first in-person talks between Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a fervent settler advocate at the helm of Israel’s settlement planning apparatus, and a Trump administration official — and it could have major implications for U.S. policy toward the settlements, which the international community largely considers illegal.

Smotrich will head to Washington in the coming days to meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and discuss economic and political cooperation, Smotrich's spokesperson said Thursday.

Smotrich, a key partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, supports rebuilding Jewish settlements in Gaza and what he describes as the voluntary migration of large numbers of Palestinians out of the territory.

He's coming to the U.S. after President Donald Trump, on his first day in office, canceled sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel releases 46 Palestinian teens and women back to their loved ones in Gaza

Dozens of Palestinian teenagers, many of them children, as well as women detained by Israel in Gaza were released back to hugs and tears from their loved ones on Thursday, marking the latest release of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

As they disembarked from the Red Cross buses in the southern town of Khan Younis, the teenagers looked gaunt and skinny. Rights groups have alleged widespread mistreatment and abuse in Israeli prisons and military detention facilities.

Many detainees fell into the arms of their relatives, who have spent days waiting for them ever since Israel held up their release last weekend to protest what it called Hamas' cruel treatment of hostages during the releases.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club, a group representing current and former prisoners, said that those being released into Gaza on Thursday were 44 male teenagers ages 15-19 and two women.

The scenes came after Israel released 500 prisoners back into Gaza overnight, in exchange for Hamas releasing four hostage bodies.

Israel rounded up hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and has held them without charge on security suspicions.

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▶ Watch as Palestinian detainees arrive to a jubilant crowd in Gaza

Israel has yet to release 24 Palestinian detainees, says group that represents prisoners

Israel on Thursday had yet to return 24 Palestinian detainees whose release was supposed to occur overnight, a group that represents prisoners said, after Hamas sent back to Israel the bodies of four hostages killed in captivity.

The 24 Palestinian detainees include 23 teenagers and one woman, all taken into Israeli custody during military raids in Gaza. They were part of a group of over 600 prisoners whose release Israel held back last weekend to protest what it called Hamas’s cruel treatment of hostages during the ceasefire deal. Israel released the bulk of the prisoners overnight except for the woman and minors.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club, a group that represents current and former prisoners, said that in addition to the 24, Israel was also set to release 22 more Palestinians, including 21 aged 15-19 and one woman. Israeli forces have arrested hundreds of people in Gaza and held them without trial.

As part of the ceasefire, Israel committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees who hadn’t participated in the Oct. 7 attack.

Israeli official says army will not withdraw from corridor along Gaza-Egypt border

An Israeli official says the army will not withdraw from a corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border as required in the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

The official spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The official said Israel needed to maintain a presence in the so-called Philadelphi corridor to prevent weapons smuggling.

Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the corridor could spark a crisis with Hamas and Egypt, a key mediator that has repeatedly called for Israel to pull out.

The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire is set to expire this weekend and negotiations over the next phase have not yet begun.

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Associated Press writer Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem.

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▶ Read more: What is the Philadelphi corridor and why does Israel want it?

Israeli hostage group says the remains of 3 hostages returned by Hamas have been identified

An Israeli group representing families of hostages held by Hamas says the remains of three of four bodies returned early Thursday have been identified. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Thursday that the bodies of Ohad Yahalomi, Itzhak Elgarat and Shlomo Mantzur have been returned to Israel.

Mantzur, 85, was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and his body was taken into Gaza. The other two were kidnapped alive and the circumstances surrounding their deaths were not known.

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Credit: AP

Credit: AP