Israel says that the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners is delayed “until the release of the following hostages is ensured, and without humiliating ceremonies” to the management of Israeli captives in Gaza.
The declaration of the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intervened early on Sunday, while military vehicles which normally move before the buses carrying prisoners left the open doors of OFER prison, to turn around and return.
The release of 620 Palestinian prisoners had been delayed for several hours and was to occur just after Six Israeli hostages were released on Saturday. He was to be the largest release of a day prisoners in the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza.
The announcement of Israel suddenly made the future of the truce in doubt.
The Commission of the Palestinian Authority for the Prisoners’ Affairs has confirmed the delay “until further notice”. The Video Associated Press in the West Bank has shown that the families of prisoners, waiting outside in near weather, apparently dispersing. A woman was shown to move away in tears.
Five of the six hostages released on Saturday had been escorted by armed militants masked in front of a crowd – an exhibition that the UN and the Red Cross criticized as cruel after previous transfresses.
The Israeli declaration cited “the ceremonies which lower the dignity of our hostages and the cynical use of hostages for propaganda purposes”. It was probably a reference to a video of Hamas showing two hostages that have not yet been released by watching a transfer to Gaza on Saturday and speaking under stress.
The six were the last living hostages which should be released as part of the first phase of the ceasefire, with a week remaining at the initial stadium. The talks on the second phase of the ceasefire have not yet started.
The six included three Israeli men seized with the Nova Music Festival and another during a family visit in the south of Israel during the terrorist attack led by Hamas led by Hamas which sparked the 16 month war in Gaza. The other two were detained for a decade after entered by Gaza by themselves.
Five were given in ceremonies staged. In one, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov and Eliya Cohen were laid alongside Hamas fighters. A radiant shem tov, acting under stress, kissed two activists on the head and kisses in the crowd. They carried false army uniforms, although they were not removed soldiers.
Cohen’s family and friends in Israel have chanted “Eliya! Eliya! Eliya!” and applaudi.
“You are heroes,” said Shem Tov to his parents when they kissed later, laughing and crying. “You have no idea what I dreamed of you.” His father, Malki Shem Tov, told public broadcaster Kan that his son had been retained alone after the first 50 days and had lost 17 kilograms (37 pounds).
Earlier Saturday, Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38, were released. Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli, entered Gaza in 2014. His family told Israeli media that he had struggled to solve mental health problems. The Israeli-Austrian shoham was removed from Kibbutz Be’eri. His wife and two children were released in an exchange in 2023.
Later, the Israeli army declared that Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, had been released. The Israeli Bedouins entered Gaza in 2015. His family told Israeli media that he had already been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The Israeli government has not answered questions about the release of prisoners. Hamas accused Israel of having violated the ceasefire agreement, spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanou accusing Netanyahu of “deliberately block”.
The hostage outing followed a heartbreaking dispute when Hamas gave the bad bodies on Thursday to Shiri BibasAn Israeli mother removed with her two young boys. The remains were determined to be those of a Palestinian woman. Netanyahu has sworn to take revenge on “a cruel and malicious violation”. Hamas suggested that it was a mistake.
The Israeli medical authorities have confirmed that a body delivered on Friday was Bibas. Dr. Chen Kugel, head of the National Institute of Medicine Medicine, said that he had found any evidence that Bibas and his children had been killed in an Israeli air strike, as Hamas claimed. Kugel did not give.
Hamas has denied Israeli military complaint, on the basis of medical-legal evidence and unpertified “intelligence”, that its activists killed children “with their hands”, calling this a lie aimed at justifying Israeli military actions against civilians in Gaza.
