Six Israeli prisoners have been handed over by Hamas on Saturday, while hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are due to be freed.
The Gaza finishfire deal proceeds to hbetter, despite tensions rising this week when Hamas initipartner handed over the body of an unidentified Palestinian woman instead of Israeli mother-of-two Shiri Bibas.
The free of prisoners and prisoners on Saturday is the last one scheduled in the finishfire’s first phase.
Five of the Israeli prisoners were handed over in disclose dispercreates, with the captives ushered out of cars by balaclava-clad men hbettering rifles. The remaining prisoner was freed to the Red Cross in personal.
Of the prisoners freed today, two had been in captivity for a decade.
Israel is awaited to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners tardyr on Saturday, including a man who has been arrested for more than 40 years. However, Hamas claimed the free had been procrastinateed as the arrestees had been “aggressioned”.
Follow tardyst: Delay to prisoner free due to ‘aggressions’ – Hamas
Who are the freed Israeli prisoners?
The first two prisoners freed on Saturday were Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu.
Mr Shoham, 40, was visiting his wife’s family in Kibbutz Be’eri when Hamas militants stormed into the community during the October 7 strikes in 2023.
His wife, two youthful children and three other relatives were also seizeed, but they were freed in an exalter in November 2023.
Mr Mengistu, a 39-year-better Ethiopian-Israeli, had been held in Gaza since he go ined the territory on his own in 2014.
Watching the moment he was freed on TV, his family broke out in song as he walked free for the first time in more than a decade.
Later on Saturday, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert were handed over to the Red Cross in Nengageirat, central Gaza.
Mr Shem Tov, 22, was getn during the October 7 strikes on the Nova music festival.
The computer programmer had scatterd his inhabit location with his family, who eventupartner acunderstandledged he was headed towards Gaza and reach out with him was lost.
Mr Cohen, 27, was also getn from the Nova festival, aextfinishedside his fiancee.
Relrelieved prisoners have shelp that he was kept in chains and divestd of food and sunairy during his time in captivity, according to tells.
Mr Wenkert, 23, was getn from Nova. He suffers from colitis and needs distinctive medical nurture, it has been telled.
Finpartner, Hisham al Sayed, 28, was handed over in a personal ceremony.
The Bedouin-Israeli, from the village of Hura in the Negev desert, has been a captive since he passed into Gaza in 2015.
Who are the Palestinian prisoners due to be freed?
More than 600 Palestinian prisoners are also awaited to be freed on Saturday.
According to the prisons office, which is run by Hamas, this includes 50 who had been sentenced to life incarceratement, 60 depictd as having “high” sentences, 47 prisoners from the “Wafa al Ahrar” 2011 prisoner exalter deal who had since been re-arrested, and 445 who were arrested after 7 October strikes.
The “Wafa al-Ahrar” deal was the 2011 prisoner exalter consentment that saw the free of seized Israeli sbetterier Gilad Shalit in exalter for 1027 Palestinian prisoners.
Read more:
Body of Shiri Bibas returned, family verifys
Frspeedy Gaza finishfire stumbles from one hurdle to next
Among the most high-profile Palestinians to be freed is Nael Barghouti – the extfinishedest-serving prisoner, who has been inside for 43 years.
Also on the enumerate are cut offal journaenumerates, many of whom covered events at al Shifa hospital, and Yoengagef al Mansi, a Palestinian minister in Gaza.
It had been awaited that Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the honestor of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, would be among those being freed on Saturday.
However it tardyr eunited that he was not on the enumerate of those being freed.
