Hamas released two hostages and is expected to release four others from Gaza on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of prisoners and Palestinian detainees, after Israel confirmed that a body delivered a few hours earlier was that of the hostages Shiri Bibas.
Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were given to the Red Cross in the south of Gaza Rafah after being led on a stage by armed activists in Hamas. Four others were to be released in the center of Gaza shortly after.
The six hostages that are expected to be released on Saturday are the last living hostages of a group of 33 which should be released in the first stage of the ceasefire agreement which entered into force on January 19.
Four of the hostages, Shoham, Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, were seized by armed men from Hamas during their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Shoham was removed from Kibbutz Be’eri with his wife and two children, who were released in a brief truce in November 2023. The other three were taken from the Nova music festival nearby.
Two others, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, and Mengistu have been detained by Hamas since they entered unexplained circumstances in unexplained circumstances.
Hundreds of Israelis gathered in the rain in what has become known as the Square Notees in Tel Aviv, applauding by looking at the outing on a large screen.
Further south, more people bordered the road near the Gaza border to accommodate the convoy bearing the liberated captives.
The outings led by Hamas, which have included public ceremonies in which the captives are taken on stage and some have spoke, faced increasing criticism, including the United Nations, which denounced “hostage parading” .
Hamas rejected criticism on Saturday, describing ceremonies as a solemn spectacle of Palestinian unity.
In return, Israel is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees detained in his prisons in the last stage of a cease-fire contract which has largely held.
They will include 445 gasans gathered by Israeli forces during the war, as well as dozens of convicted people serving long or life terms, according to Hamas.
During an exchange of hostages between Hamas and Israel on Thursday, Israel received the remains of the Ariel and Kfir Bibas brothers, who were only four years old and nine months old when they were taken on October 7, 2023. They had to Be returned home with their mother’s body, Shiri Bibas – but the bad remains were given to Israel. Israel’s ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed joins power and politics to discuss the impact of the current ceasefire.
The fragile truce of war between the activists of Israel and Hamas had been threatened with derailment by the erroneous identification of a body released Thursday like that of Bibas, which was removed with his two young sons and her husband during The attack on Hamas on October 7, 2023.
However, late Friday, Hamas gave another body which, according to his family, had been confirmed as his.
“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” the family said in a statement, which said that it had been identified by the Institute of Medicine Legal Medicine in Israel.
The Bibas family was an emblem of the trauma suffered by Israel that day. The poor identification of the remains of Shiri Bibas, as well as the transfer of their coffins by the indignant Hamas of the Israelis. Her husband Yarden, seized and helped her family separately, was released on February 1.
The Israeli army said that intelligence assessments and the medical-legal analysis of the bibes bibas 10 months old and his four-year-old brother Ariel showed that the two had been deliberately killed by their captors, “in the blood cold”.
The radio of the army of Israel, citing the medical-legal conclusions, said that Bibas was probably killed with his children.
Hamas says the Bibas family was killed by an Israeli air strike. A group called the Mujahideen brigades said that he had the family, which had been confirmed by the Israeli army.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to ensure that Hamas “pays the high price” for having omitted to return the body, but he refrained from moving away from the cease-fire agreement, which took effect on January 19.
Hamas, which has itself accused Israel of having violated the ceasefire by blocking the vital aid supplies in Gaza, nevertheless officially informed Israel of the names of the hostages which will be published on Saturday in a sign that the transfer would go .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will make Hamas pay for not having released the body of the hostages Shiri Bibas, as agreed. Israeli specialists said one of the four bodies given by Hamas on Thursday was an unidentified woman and not Bibas. Hamas said it would examine the possibility of an error or that human remains were mixed due to Israeli air strikes.
The ceasefire has paused in the fighting, but the prospects for a final end to war remain unclear. Hamas had trouble demonstrating that he remains in control in Gaza despite heavy losses in the war.
The militant group sparked the conflict by its attack on the Israeli communities who killed 1,200 and took 251 hostages, according to Israel.
The Israeli campaign killed at least 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and reduces a large part of the enclave in rubble, leaving a few hundred thousand makeshift shelters and dependent on aid trucks.
The two parties said they intended to start talks on a second step, which mediators say they aim to agree with the return of around 60 remaining hostages, less than half of which are considered alive and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
But the hopes of an agreement were darken by disagreements on the future of Gaza, which were deepened by a shock in the region about the proposal of the American president Donald Trump to clear the enclave of the Palestinians and the Develop as a Riviera style complex under American control.
