BY OSABUOHIEN VIVIAN ROSE
Hamas has released five Israeli hostages early Saturday out of six to be freed in exchange for more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails. This is the largest number of Palestinian prisoners to be released at once since the beginning of the ceasefire which began in January.
This comes two days after Hamas returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages, one of which was supposed to be Shiri Bibas, a mother who was 32 years old at the time of her kidnapping. Israeli forensic testing showed that those remains were that of an unidentified woman. On Friday, Hamas returned a second body, which Israeli authorities confirmed was that of Bibas.
Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken hostage from the Kibbutz Be’eri, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were released from the southern city of Rafah. Under a light showers of rain and to the chants of “God is Great,” masked Hamas militants led the hostages one by one to a stage, where Shoham made a short speech.
Three other hostages – Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Omer Wenkert, 23 – were released a few hours later in a separate ceremony at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The three were also brought on a stage, flanked by masked Hamas gunmen. They waved and gave thumbs up to the assembled crowd, while Tov kissed the foreheads of two of the Hamas gunmen next to him.
The sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, is set to be released from Gaza City, without a ceremony.
Al-Sayed, a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel, and Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli man, have been in captivity for around a decade after they crossed into Gaza on their own in separate incidents.
The other four hostages were all taken in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Cohen, Tov and Wenkert had been at the Nova music festival when the attack began. Shoham had been with his family, most of whom were also taken hostage to Gaza but were released in an earlier deal.
In exchange for the hostages released today, along with the bodies of four hostages returned earlier this week, Palestinian authorities expect Israel to release over 600 prisoners and detainees.
Those expected to be released include prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, but also many — including women and minors — who had been held in administrative detention without charge or sentencing. More than 400 are Palestinians who were detained in Gaza during the war, and will be released in the southern city of Rafah. In total, it’s the largest number of Palestinians freed at one time during this war.
This is the eighth hostage-for-prisoner exchange in a ceasefire so far between Israel and Hamas that has been holding for more than a month. Hamas has also agreed to release four more bodies of hostages next week.
In exchange, Israel is acceding to Hamas’ request to allow heavy machinery to unearth the bodies of Palestinians buried under rubble. It is also allowing mobile homes into Gaza for those whose homes were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the 15-month-war which began after Hamas attack, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the arrangement.
Israel says these agreements were reached through mediators during recent negotiations in Cairo.
The family of hostage Shiri Bibas, who was 32 years old at the time of her kidnapping, said the remains of a body returned to Israel late Friday night are hers.
“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” the Bibas family said in a statement. “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 other hostage remains returned were those of the Bibas boys Ariel and Kfir, ages 4 and nine months at the time of their capture. Also returned were the remains of Oded Lifshitz, 84. All were taken hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Hamas claims the hostages were killed by Israeli air strikes during the conflict, Israel says “all three were brutally murdered in Hamas captivity during the early weeks of the war,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. The statement did not elaborate on how they were killed.
The Bibas family and their two small redheaded children had become a symbol of the hostage struggle in Israel throughout the war, with posters of their faces plastered along city streets and commemorations held on the children’s birthdays.
The conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas militants broke through the border with Israel and killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli authority.
During the 15 month-old war, more than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza were killed in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza health authorities.
