Israeli hostages Averu Mengistu (4th-R) and Tal Shoham (L) are flanked by Hamas fighters as they stand on a stage throughout their launch in Rafah within the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP through Getty Photos
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Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP through Getty Photos
TEL AVIV — Hamas launched 5 Israeli hostages early Saturday amongst six to be freed in alternate for greater than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails. That is the biggest variety of Palestinian prisoners to be launched directly because the starting of the ceasefire which started in January.
This comes two days after Hamas returned the our bodies of 4 Israeli hostages, one among which was presupposed to be Shiri Bibas, a mom who was 32 years previous on the time of her kidnapping. Israeli forensic testing confirmed that these stays had been actually that of an unidentified lady. On Friday, Hamas returned a second physique, which Israeli authorities confirmed was that of Bibas.
Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken hostage from the Kibbutz Be’eri, and Avera Mengistu, 39, had been launched from the southern metropolis of Rafah. Beneath a light-weight drizzle of rain and to the chants of “God is Great,” masked Hamas militants led the hostages one after the other to a stage, the place Shoham made a small speech.
Three different hostages – Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Omer Wenkert, 23 – had been launched just a few hours later in a separate ceremony on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The three had been additionally introduced on a stage, flanked by masked Hamas gunmen. They waved and gave thumbs as much as the assembled crowd, whereas Tov kissed the foreheads of two of the Hamas gunmen subsequent to him.
The sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, is ready to be launched from Gaza Metropolis, with out a ceremony.
Al-Sayed, a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel, and Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli man, have been in captivity for round a decade after they crossed into Gaza on their very own in separate incidents.
The opposite 4 hostages had been all taken within the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Cohen, Tov and Wenkert had been on the Nova music pageant when the assault started. Shoham had been along with his household, most of whom had been additionally taken hostage to Gaza however had been launched in an earlier deal.
In alternate for the hostages launched as we speak, together with the our bodies of 4 hostages returned earlier this week, Palestinian authorities anticipate Israel to launch greater than 600 prisoners and detainees. These anticipated to be launched embody prisoners serving life sentences for lethal assaults on Israelis, but additionally many — together with girls and minors — who had been held in administrative detention with out cost or sentencing. Greater than 400 are Palestinians who had been detained in Gaza in the course of the battle, and will probably be launched within the southern metropolis of Rafah. In whole, it is the biggest variety of Palestinians freed at one time throughout this battle.
That is the eighth such hostage-for-prisoner alternate in a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that has been holding for greater than a month. Hamas has additionally agreed to launch 4 extra our bodies of hostages subsequent week.
In alternate, Israel is acceding to Hamas’ request to permit heavy equipment to unearth the our bodies of Palestinians buried below rubble. It is usually permitting cell houses into Gaza for these whose houses had been destroyed in Israeli strikes in the course of the 15-month-war sparked by the Hamas assault, in response to an Israeli official who was not approved to talk publicly in regards to the association.
Israel says these agreements had been reached by means of mediators throughout current negotiations in Cairo.
This mixture of images created on February 20, 2025 reveals posters bearing the portraits of Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas (C) and her two kids Ariel (L) and Kfir (R), held within the Gaza Strip because the October 7, 2023 assault by Hamas militants, arrange on a sq. outdoors the Tel Aviv Museum of Artwork, on January 21, 2025.
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Hostage physique Mistake
The household of hostage Shiri Bibas, who was 32 years previous on the time of her kidnapping, stated the stays of a physique returned to Israel late Friday night time are hers.
“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” the Bibas household stated in a press release. “Following the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, we received this morning the news we had dreaded — our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family for rest.”
The opposite hostage stays returned had been these of the Bibas boys Ariel and Kfir, ages 4 and 9 months on the time of their seize. Additionally returned had been the stays of Oded Lifshitz, 84. All had been taken hostage within the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault on Israel from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Hamas says the hostages had been killed by Israeli air strikes in the course of the battle. Israel says “all three were brutally murdered in Hamas captivity during the early weeks of the war,” in response to a press release from the prime minister’s workplace. The assertion didn’t elaborate on how they had been killed.
Shiri Bibas’ husband Yarden was additionally taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023. He was launched alive earlier this month.
The Bibas household and their two small redheaded kids had grow to be a logo of the hostage wrestle in Israel all through the battle, with posters of their faces plastered alongside metropolis streets and commemorations held on the kids’s birthdays.
A girl reacts as folks collect at ‘Hostages Sq.’ in Tel Aviv, to look at the discharge of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian Hamas motion within the Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
Jack Guez/AFP through Getty Photos
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Jack Guez/AFP through Getty Photos
Dozens of hostages stay in Gaza
The primary part of the ceasefire is ready to finish March 2, and there’ll nonetheless be 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, practically half of them confirmed useless, in response to Israel. Talks in regards to the subsequent part of the deal — which had been supposed to start weeks in the past — have but to happen.
Hamas says it is able to “engage immediately” in negotiations to increase the ceasefire and launch all remaining Israeli hostages in a single batch and never in phases, in alternate for Israel liberating extra Palestinian prisoners.
“These steps reflect the seriousness of [Hamas] in implementing the terms of the agreement as stated, and in response to the efforts of the mediators,” Hamas stated in a press release.
However far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition oppose additional hostage-prisoner swaps and name for Israel to resume preventing in Gaza towards Hamas.
The most recent Israel-Hamas battle started on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants from Hamas and different teams broke by means of the border with Israel and killed some 1,200 folks and took greater than 250 folks hostage, in response to Israeli authorities. Within the ensuing 15 months of battle, greater than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed in Israeli strikes, in response to Gaza well being authorities.
Anas Baba in Rafah, Itay Stern in Tel Aviv, Yanal Jabarin in Jerusalem, Ahmed Abuhamda in Cairo, and Nuha Musleh in Ramallah contributed to this report.
