‘I burst into tears’: Emotions high as World Vision worker freed in Gaza ceasefire exchange

The moment Tim Costello received the news that Mohammed el-Halabi was free, he burst into tears.

Halabi, the former World Vision branch manager for Gaza, spent more than eight years in custody after he was arrested in June 2016 while crossing the border between Israel and Gaza en route to a meeting with staff in Jerusalem.

Freed Palestinian prisoners wave from a bus as they arrive in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip after being released by Israel at the weekend.Credit: AP

He was charged in 2016 and convicted in 2022 of funnelling US$43 million in charity funding to Hamas, but he and his supporters always rejected the allegations.

Costello, the former chief executive of World Vision, was in charge when Halabi was detained and has advocated publicly for his release. He was overcome when Halabi was among the prisoners exchanged for Israeli hostages on Saturday and returned to his wife, five children and parents.

“When I heard the news, I burst into tears,” Costello said on Sunday. “I know Mohammed. I know that he was an innocent man who has had 8½ years in prison. “I know that World Vision did a forensic audit of all the monies, no monies were missing … that he was an innocent man, so I burst into tears with relief, particularly given he has five children.

“We had been hearing since the ceasefire that he might be on the list, so we have been waiting for that.”

Former World Vision chief executive Tim Costello.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Costello, who is now director of Ethical Voice, said he was saddened to see how gaunt el-Halabi looked after his time in jail. He has been in regular email contact with Halabi’s father but has not seen Halabi since before he was detained.

“I was shocked at the pictures, but I was thrilled that he’s out,” Costello said. “DFAT had cleared him and World Vision of any wrongdoing when they reviewed the case some six or seven years ago, so this was a terrible injustice. He was a brave man who could have easily pleaded guilty and really not served any time, but he said he was not guilty.”

Costello said Halabi’s family were among the many Gazans who had fled the war and were now trying to rebuild their lives and homes.

“While we are thrilled, we know he goes back to Gaza, where we have seen so much of it destroyed, which is equally, really, really scary,” he said. “I’m just so glad that there is a ceasefire, that the Israeli hostages are getting out and also people like Mohammed are getting out. I just pray that ceasefire holds and there can be a future there.”

Speaking to reporters and supporters in Khan Younis in Gaza after his release, Halabi said he felt that, in using secret evidence to prolong his imprisonment, Israel “exhibited the behaviour of a gang, not a democratic state”.

Rights groups say Halabi was denied a fair and transparent trial, as he and World Vision had no chance to review the evidence against them, with all procedures shielded from the public and shrouded in secrecy. Israel has attributed the closed hearings to sensitive security information being relayed. Israeli courts typically hold closed hearings to protect the sources of their information.

Halabi was sentenced to 12 years in prison. World Vision has said that the accusations that he transferred 60 per cent of the charity’s annual budget for Gaza to Hamas could not be reconciled with its financial records.

After el-Halabi’s arrest, World Vision suspended its activities in Gaza, where it says its aid had benefited nearly 40,000 children affected by the crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the enclave.

Freed Palestinian prisoners arrive in Gaza.Credit: AP

World Vision was contacted for comment on Sunday.

The ceasefire in Gaza had its smoothest exchange yet of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, and the crucial Rafah border crossing reopened two days before discussions on the truce’s far more difficult second phase begin.

The ceasefire’s second phase calls for the release of remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce in the deadliest and most destructive war ever between Israel and Hamas. The fighting could resume in early March if an agreement is not reached.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday (US time), giving him a chance to showcase his ties to Israel’s closest ally and press his case for what should come next after 15 months of war.

Netanyahu’s office said he spoke on Saturday evening with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. They agreed that negotiations on the second phase would begin at their meeting on Monday, and Witkoff later in the week would speak to the other mediators, Qatar and Egypt.

On Saturday, Hamas freed three male hostages and Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners in the fourth such exchange. Another exchange is planned for next Saturday.

In the latest exchange, militants handed Argentinian-Israeli Yarden Bibas and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon to Red Cross officials in the southern city of Khan Younis, while American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, looking pale and thin, was handed over in Gaza City.

All three were taken during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the war. Eighteen hostages have now been released since the ceasefire began on January 19. The latest releases were quick and orderly, in contrast to chaotic scenes on Thursday, when armed militants appeared to struggle to hold back a crowd. On Saturday, the militants stood in rows as the hostages walked onto a stage and waved.

Released hostage Keith Siegal arrives at a Tel Aviv hospital.Credit: Getty Images

A bus later left Ofer Military Prison with more than two dozen Palestinian prisoners bound for the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Jubilant crowds cheered and hoisted the prisoners on their shoulders. Many appeared frail and thin.

The Israeli Prison Authority said all 183 prisoners set for release had been freed. In another sign of progress in the ceasefire, they included 111 who were arrested after Hamas’ October 7 attack but who weren’t involved in it.

Siegel, 65, originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, along with his wife, Aviva, who was released during a brief 2023 ceasefire. There were sighs of relief and cheers as kibbutz members watched Siegel’s release.

“You can see that he’s lost a lot of weight, but still he’s walking and talking, and you can feel that it’s still him. And one of the first things he told us is that he’s still vegan,” said Siegel’s niece, Tal Wax.

The release of Bibas, 35, brought renewed attention to the fate of his wife, Shiri, and their two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were four years old and nine months old when they were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Kfir was the youngest of the roughly 250 people who were taken captive on October 7, and his plight came to represent the helplessness and anger in Israel.

A freed Palestinian prisoner hugs a relative in Gaza.Credit: AP

Israel expressed “grave concern” for Bibas’ wife and children and pleaded with negotiators to provide information. Hamas has said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israel has not confirmed it.

After his release, Bibas closed his eyes as his father, Eli, and sister Ofri hugged him and cried. “Sweetheart,” his father said.

“A quarter of our heart has returned to us,” the Bibas family said in a statement.

Kalderon, 54, was also captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His two children, Erez and Sahar, were taken alongside him and released during the earlier ceasefire.

“I am here. I am here. I didn’t give up,” Kalderon said as they embraced.

There were similar scenes among the released Palestinians.

“Certainly, it’s an indescribable feeling, and undoubtedly a mixed feeling of both sadness and joy, as we have left our brothers in captivity,” said Mohammad Kaskus, who had been sentenced to 25 years over attacks against Israelis.

Yaser Abu Hamad, arrested for involvement in the Islamic Jihad militant group in 2006, found that 20 family members including his mother and sisters had been killed by Israeli airstrikes during the war. He visited their graves.

Palestinians who had been sentenced over their connection to deadly attacks against Israelis described harsh conditions, beatings and other abuse in prison. The Israeli Prison Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Saturday, 50 sick and wounded Palestinian children were to leave Gaza for treatment through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt as the enclave’s sole exit opened for the first time since Israel captured it nine months ago.

During the ceasefire’s six-week first phase, 33 Israeli hostages are to be freed in exchange for nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says it has received information from Hamas that eight of those hostages are dead. About 80 hostages remain in Gaza.

Israel says it is committed to destroying Hamas. The militant group says it won’t release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

About 1200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack that sparked the war. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory air and ground offensive, over half women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry

With AP

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