Gaza frees six hostages as ceasefire with Israel hangs in the balance
Palestinians still awaiting release of more than 600 prisoners and detainees from Israel
Hamas freed all six hostages slated for release in the latest exchange on Saturday, but hours after they were handed over, Israel had yet to release the more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees it had agreed to let go in exchange.
The Israeli prime minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reason for the delay.
The six freed included three Israeli men seized from the Nova music festival and another abducted while visiting his family in southern Israel when militants stormed across the border in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israel's nearly 16-month campaign in the Gaza Strip.
The other two hostages had been held by Hamas for around a decade since they each entered Gaza on their own.
Five of the captives were handed over in staged ceremonies — brought out by masked, armed Hamas fighters in front of hundreds of Palestinians before being transferred to Red Cross vehicles.
In the central town of Nuseirat, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov and Eliya Cohen were posed alongside Hamas fighters on the stage. A beaming Shem Tov even kissed two militants next to him on the head and blew kisses to the crowd.
Hamas has come under heavy criticism for such public displays, with Israel, the UN and the Red Cross saying they are cruel and do not respect the dignity of the hostages.
Watching the release, Cohen's family and friends in Israel chanted "Eliya! Eliya! Eliya!" and cheered when they saw him for the first time. Shem Tov's grandmother ululated in joy as she saw him, shrieking, "Omer, my joy! My life!"
The Israeli military says the final hostage was released by Hamas later Saturday. He was not immediately identified but is expected to be Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, a Bedouin Israeli who crossed on his own into Gaza in 2015 and had been held since. His family has told Israeli media Al-Sayed was previously diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Earlier Saturday, two other hostages — Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38 — were freed in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The latest releases, to be followed by the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, went ahead after tensions mounted over a grisly and heart-wrenching dispute triggered this week when Hamas initially handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys abducted by the militants.
The remains that Hamas transferred with her sons' bodies on Thursday were later determined to be those of an unidentified Palestinian woman. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge for "a cruel and malicious violation," while Hamas suggested it had been a mistake.
On Friday night, the small militant group believed to have been holding Bibas and her sons — the Palestinian Mujahedeen Brigades — handed over a second body. Bibas's family said Israeli forensic authorities had confirmed the remains were hers.
"For 16 months we sought certainty, and now that it's here, it brings no comfort, though we hope it marks the beginning of closure," the family said.
Difficult negotiations expected over ceasefire's next phase
The ceasefire deal has paused the war but is nearing the end of its first phase. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal, are likely to be even more difficult.
The six hostages being freed Saturday are the last living ones to be released under the first phase.
Cohen, Shem Tov and Wenkert, all in their 20s, were abducted by Hamas fighters at the Nova music festival. During their release, they were brought out wearing fake army uniforms, though they were not soldiers when they were kidnapped.
Hostages Shoham and Mengistu have arrived back in Israel and been taken to medical centres for examination.
"This is an unforgettable moment, where all emotions are rapidly mixing together. Our Tal is with us," Shoham's family said in a statement.
They also called for a deal to free all those still captive: "There is a window of opportunity; we must not miss it."
Shoham, who also holds Austrian citizenship, was visiting his wife's family in Kibbutz Be'eri when Hamas militants stormed into the community during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Shoham's wife, two young children and three other relatives who were abducted with him were freed in a November 2023 exchange.
Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli, had been held in Gaza since entering on his own in 2014. Watching the handover on Israeli media, Mengistu's family broke out into a Hebrew song, Here is the Light, as they saw him for the first time in more than a decade.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners set for release
More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange, the Palestinian prisoners media office said Friday. They include 50 serving life sentences, 60 with long sentences, 47 who were released under a previous hostage-for-prisoner exchange and 445 Palestinians who have been seized by Israeli troops in Gaza since the war began.
Hamas has said it will also release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. If that plan is carried out, Hamas would retain about 60 hostages, about half of whom are believed to be alive.
Hamas has said it won't release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, says he's committed to destroying Hamas's military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
Israel's military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighbourhoods to rubble. At its height, the war displaced 90 per cent of Gaza's population. Many have returned to their homes to find nothing left and no way of rebuilding.
