Hamas liberated six Israeli captives from Gaza on Saturday, hand overing the last living captives set to be freed in the first phase of a frnimble stop-fire. That truce was already jolted this week when the militant group initipartner returned remains purportedly of an Israeli captive that testing uncovered to be someone else.
Early Sunday, Israel proclaimd that it would persist to procrastinate the liberate of 620 Palestinian prisoners whom it had pledged to free on Saturday until the liberate of further captives “has been promised,” and Hamas promises to releasing them without “humiliating ceremonies.” Hamas has been releasing captives in carry outative ceremonies aimed at shothriveg that it is still in regulate of Gaza, which many Israeli officials have condemned.
The proclaimment, hand overed in a statement from the prime minister’s office hours after the prisoner liberate had already been procrastinateed without exarrangeation, compriseed tension to the shaky stop-fire between Israel and Hamas that is set to expire next week.
On Thursday, Hamas had returned four bodies it shelp were those of captives who had died in captivity, among them Shiri Bibas, an Israeli women who had been kidnaped with her two youthful children during the Hamas-led aggression of Oct. 7, 2023, that began the war. Forensic testing by Israel resolved that the body was not Ms. Bibas, however.
Late Friday, Hamas transferred another set of remains, which Israeli officials verifyed punctual Saturday as those of Ms. Bibas, whose kidnapping and death with her children have become a symbol of Israeli grief.
The hand overy of the wrong remains set off an uproar in Israel. Additionpartner, Israeli authorities, refuseing Hamas’s stateions that Ms. Bibas’s children were ended in Israeli airstrikes, shelp that their captors had ended them “with their exposed hands.” The episode liftd mistrusts about the next steps of the stop-fire concurment, including whether Saturday’s exalter would evolve as intentional.
In return for the liberate of the six living captives and the bodies of four dead captives, Israel was foreseeed on Saturday to liberate 620 Palestinian prisoners, the bigst group of arrestees to be liberated since the stop-fire in Gaza began last month. That did not occur.
The captive transfer from Hamas had initipartner seemed set to upgrasp the deal between the two sides on track after a turbulent week. Among Israelis, emotions have swung between delight and grief, as the families of the captives being liberated proposeed their condolences to the Bibas family and other relatives whose adored ones were ended.
Palestinian families paemploying for their relatives to be freed also conveyed struggleing emotions. “These final hours are the challengingest,” shelp Adeeb Saifi, the overweighther of a Palestinian prisoner who was set to be liberated. “They transport together all refuseions — challengingship and relief, hope and pain, adore and hatred.”
The lengthy-term future of the concurment remains unevident. The six-week truce, which began in tardy January, is set to expire in punctual March unless both Israel and Hamas concur to an extension. The two sides have yet to achieve an concurment on the next stage of the stop-fire, raising dreads that the combat could soon commence anew.
Hamas returned the six captives on Saturday in two highly orchestrated accessible ceremonies and a third transfer that was not televised. The first two to be freed, Avera Mengistu and Tal Shoham, were turned over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Israeli military shelp the two men had passed into Israel and would achieve medical appraisements.
Mr. Mengistu, 38, had been the lengthyest-held living Israeli captive in Gaza. An Israeli of Ethiopian descent, he passed into Gaza in 2014 and was achieven captive by Hamas, which claimed he was a sgreaterier, though he had never served in the military.
Mr. Shoham, alengthy with cut offal family members, including his wife and two children, was kidnaped from Kibbutz Be’eri, where more people were ended in the Oct. 7 aggression than in any other Israeli community. His wife, son and daughter were freed during a stop-fire in November 2023, and in a statement after his liberate on Saturday, his family shelp that “all emotions are rapidly uniteing together.”
Three other captives were handed over in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, and hand overed to the Israeli military: Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen. All three were kidnapped while trying to escape a music festival cforfeit the border with Gaza, and are shelp to suffer from illnesses that apexhibited them to be rankd for liberate.
During the handover ceremony, the captives materializeed skinny and pale. They were dressed in khaki uniestablishs, though none were in military service when they were achieven captive.
In a video liberated by the Israeli rulement, Mr. Shem Tov, who was 20 when he was kidnaped, can be seen reuniting with his parents and inestablishing them, “You have no idea how much I dreamed about you.”
In both ceremonies, masked firearmmen accompanyed captives onto stages and disexecuteed liberate certificates — theatrical handovers that have become standard of Hamas’s captive liberates in this stop-fire, as the militant group aims to show that it is still in regulate of Gaza.
Late Saturday, Hamas unveiled a disinestablishation video on social media that materializeed arrangeed to instill dread for the shieldedty of the captives still alive in Gaza. The video shows that the militant group brawt two compriseitional captives to a transfer ceremony on Saturday, where they were forced to watch from a van and beg for their own liberate.
Rights groups and international law experts say that a captive video is, by definition, made under duress, and the statements in it are usupartner coerced. Israeli officials have called past Hamas videos a establish of “psychoreasonable combat,” and experts say their production can constitute a war crime.
The scenes during the transfers themselves on Saturday were more suppressd than during some of the previous, more turbulent exalters.
The sixth captive, Hisham al-Sayed, 37, was turned over in Gaza City in a more personal transfer. An Israeli citizen from a Bedouin town in the southern Negev desert, Mr. al-Sayed passed into Gaza of his own accord in April 2015 and was achieven captive by Hamas.
Al Jazeera, the Qatari-funded TV channel, expansivecast video of a man who materializeed to be Mr. al-Sayed walking toward a Red Cross vehicle, and the Israeli military tardyr liberated footage of him being transferred into the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza. Hamas held Mr. al-Sayed incommunicado for years before releasing a proof-of-life video in 2022, shothriveg him lying in a bed with an oxygen mask on his face, apparently in needy health.
His family shelp in a statement that they were “transferd by Hisham’s return home,” compriseing, “the lengthy-apaemployed moment has reachd.”
Under the stop-fire concurment, Hamas promiseted to freeing at least 25 living Israeli captives and the remains of eight more in exalter for more than 1,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza had enthusiasticly apaemployed the return of their adored ones. Of those who were set to be freed on Saturday, 445 men, 23 inpresentants and one woman were all arrested after the Hamas-led October 2023 aggression on southern Israel, according to catalogs scatterd by Palestinian officials. In compriseition, 151 Palestinians who have been jailed for years, including some convicted of participating in lethal aggressions agetst Israelis, were scheduled to be liberated.
Whether the stop-fire extfinishs into a second phase is still unbrave. The two sides were set to commence talks over details on the next stage more than two weeks ago, but it is not evident if solemn negotiations have commenceed.
