With messages rejecting displacement, Al-Qassam hands over 3 Israeli prisoners to the Red Cross in the sixth exchange batch

On Saturday, the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Quds Brigades handed over 3 Israeli prisoners, including two who hold American and Russian citizenship, to the International Committee of the Red Cross east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

This came as part of the sixth batch of the exchange deal within the framework of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement that entered into force on January 19.

The handover ceremony began with the arrival of a black Israeli vehicle carrying the three Israeli prisoners to the handover site. Anadolu Agency correspondent reported that this vehicle was seized by Al-Qassam on October 7, 2023.

Before the handover process began, the Qassam representative and one of the International Committee of the Red Cross crews signed the prisoners’ handover report, after the latter had checked the names.

As part of the handover ceremony, the Al-Qassam Brigades handed one of the three Israeli prisoners an hourglass on which was written "Time is running out", to be delivered to the Israeli government.

The three prisoners were also given pictures of the historical map of Palestine.

Rejecting displacement is the most prominent message of Al-Qassam

As part of the preparations for the delivery of the sixth batch of the prisoner exchange deal, the Al-Qassam Brigades raised banners bearing pictures and symbols indicating the position rejecting US President Donald Trump’s plan to seize the Gaza Strip and displace Palestinians from it.

These photos were raised on the main platform where the three Israeli prisoners will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Some of the photos that were uploaded also indicated that "resistance is the way to liberate Palestine," in conjunction with the plans aimed at displacing him and stealing his land.

Al-Sinwar was sitting on his famous seat in his last scene, and in front of him was a hole overlooking the Dome of the Rock in the heart of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and near it was a person carrying the Palestinian flag.

On October 18, 2024, the Israeli army published a video clip that it said was of Sinwar’s last moments, in which he appeared sitting inside a house in Rafah on a chair, injured in his right hand, and masked with a keffiyeh, while holding a stick that he threw at an Israeli drone that was filming him.

A banner was placed on the lower part of the platform reading, “We crossed like a thread of sunshine,” and it bore pictures of 11 Israeli sites that Qassam fighters crossed during Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa on October 7, 2023.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” by attacking military bases and settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, killing and capturing Israelis; in response to “the daily crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and their sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque,” according to the movement.

An hourglass was also placed on the platform, with the words “Time is running out” written underneath it. This is a message that the Qassam Brigades have repeatedly sent to the Israeli government during more than 15 months of genocide, referring to the fate of their prisoners in Gaza.

Today, Al-Qassam renews this signal, days after it announced on Monday that it would freeze the release of Israeli prisoners until Tel Aviv stops its violations and commits retroactively to the humanitarian protocol of the agreement, before resuming the operation after the mediators’ efforts.

On Thursday, Hamas confirmed that it is continuing "its position to implement the agreement according to what was signed, including the exchange of prisoners according to the specified timetable."

She said in a statement that mediators in Egypt and Qatar made efforts to remove obstacles and fill gaps caused by Israeli violations of the agreement, describing the atmosphere of the talks as "positive."

The agreement witnessed breaches in 4 tracks, which according to Hamas are targeting and killing Palestinians, delaying the return of the displaced to northern Gaza, obstructing the entry of shelter requirements such as tents, prefabricated houses, fuel, and rubble-removal mechanisms to retrieve bodies, and delaying the entry of medicines and requirements for the restoration of hospitals and the health sector.

On Friday, the government media office in Gaza announced that no mobile homes (caravans) or heavy equipment and machinery would be brought into the Strip, in accordance with the humanitarian protocol. Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Thursday that 763 trucks had entered the Gaza Strip, without mentioning any details or confirmation from government agencies in Gaza.

On January 19, a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement went into effect, which included three stages, each lasting 42 days, with negotiations taking place in the first to begin the second, with the mediation of Egypt and Qatar and the support of the United States.

With American support, between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, Israel committed genocide in Gaza, leaving about 160,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.

Anatolia