On Saturday, Hamas posted six of the Gaza of Israeli, delivering the last living prisoners who were released in the first phase of fragile trial. This truce is already accelerated this week when the militant group initially returned to the remains of an Israeli hostage that revealed the test that someone was else.
Early on Sunday, Israel announced that he would continue to delay the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners, who on Saturday had committed to free himself, demanding that Hamas for the first time let more prisoners of Gaza be released and undertaken to let them without “humiliation ceremonies”. Hamas has published hostages in performance ceremonies intended to show that he still controls gauze, which many Israeli officials have condemned.
The announcement, submitted in a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office for hours after the prisoner’s release was already delayed without explanation, added the tension with the shaken interruption of the fire between Israel and Hamas, which will expel next week.
On Thursday, Hamas returned four bodies that were said to have died in captivity, including Shiri Bibas, Israeli women who were abducted with their two young children during an attack on Hamas on October 7, 2023, that began war. However, the forensic examination of Israel found that the body was not Mrs. Bibas.
Late on Friday, Hamas conveyed another body, which Israeli officials confirmed early Saturday as Mrs. Bibas. Her abduction and death with her children became a symbol of Israeli sadness.
Delivery of the wrong remains triggered restlessness in Israel. In addition, the Israeli authorities, rejecting Hamas’s claims that Mrs. Bibas children were killed in Israeli air attacks, they said that the kidnappers were “killed by their bare hands”. The episode has caused doubts about the following steps of the fire interruption agreement, including whether Saturday’s exchange will continue as planned.
In return for the release of six living hostages and the bodies of four dead prisoners, Israel announced on Saturday that he would release 620 Palestinian prisoners, the largest groups of detainees to be released from release from release in Gaza last month. That didn’t happen.
Hamas hostage broadcasts initially seemed to be the contract between the two sides to a trace after a tumultuous week. Among the Israelites, emotions turned between joy and sadness, because the families of the hostages who were released sent condolences to the Bibas family and other relatives whose loved ones were killed.
Palestinian families waiting for their relatives to be released have also expressed conflicted emotions. “These last hours are the hardest,” said Adeeb Saifi, father of the Palestinian prisoner who was supposed to be released. “They gather all contradictions – difficulties and relief, hope and pain, love and hatred.”
The long -term future of the agreement remains unclear. The six -week truce, which began at the end of January, should be expired in early March, unless Israel and Hamas agree to extend. The two sides have not yet reached an agreement on the next stage of interruption, raising the fear that the fighting could soon start again.
Hamas returned six hostages on Saturday in two highly orchestrated public ceremonies and a third transfer that was not on television. The first two to free themselves, Avera Menongist and Tal Shoham were transferred to the Red Cross officers in the southern city of Gazi Rafah. The Israeli army said the two men had moved to Israel and would receive medical estimates.
Mr. Mengista, 38, was the longest -running Israeli hostage in Gaza. Israeli Ethiopian origin, he moved to Gaza in 2014, and Hamas took him hostage, who claimed that he was a soldier, although he had never served in the army.
Mr. Shoham, together with several family members, including his wife and two children, is abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri, where More people were killed in an attack on October 7th. but in any other Israeli community. His wife, son and daughter were released during the permanent fire in November 2023, and in a statement after his release on Saturday, his family said that “all emotions were quickly mixed.”
Three other soils were handed over to Nuseiirati, in the central gauze, and handed over to the Israeli army: Omer Shem tov, Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen. All three were abducted as they tried to escape at a music festival near the border with Gaza, and they say they suffer from the diseases that made them priority to release.
During the ceremony of the handover, the hostages appeared thin and pale. They were dressed in Kaki uniforms, although no one was in military service when they were taken hostages.
In the video published by the Israeli government, Mr. SHEM TOV, who was 20 years old when he was abducted, can be seen reuniting with their parents and telling them, “You have no idea how much I dreamed of you.”
In both ceremonies, the masked are armed with the stages in the stages and presented certificates of edition-presidential handover that have become typical of Hamas’s hostages in this deceased fire, as the militant group wants to show that it still has control over Gaza.
Late on Saturday, Hamas posted a propaganda video on social networks that appeared thoughtful to encourage fear for the safety of hostages still alive in Gaza. The video shows that a militant group brought two additional prisoners to the transfer ceremony on Saturday, where they were forced to watch from the van and pray for their own edition.
Rights group And international law experts say that the video for hostage, by definition, is made under coercion, and the statements in it are usually forced. Israeli officials have called the past Hamas videos with the form of a “psychological war”, and experts say that their production can be a war crime.
The scenes during the transfers themselves on Saturday were more muffled than during some previous, more chaotic exchanges.
Sixth hostage, 37-year-old Hisham al-Sayed was transferred to the city of Gaza in a private transfer. Israeli citizen from the Bedouin city in the desert of South Negev, Mr. Al-Sayed moved to Gaza in April 2015, and Hamas took him hostage.
Al Jazeera, a TV channel funded by Qatar, aired a video of a man who seemed to have been walking toward the Red Cross vehicle, and the Israeli army later released the recordings that he was transferred to the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza. For years, Hamas held Mr. Al-Sayed Incomucado before in 2022 he posted a video of the proof of life, showing him lying in a bed with an oxygen mask on his face, obviously in bad health.
His family said in a statement that they were “moved by Hisham’s return home,” adding, “the long -awaited moment arrived.”
According to an agreement on the interruption of fire, Hamas has committed to release at least 25 living Israeli hostages and remains more than eight in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinians in Israel prison.
The Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza eagerly awaited the return of their loved ones. Of those who were supposed to be liberated on Saturday, 445 men, 23 minors and one woman were arrested after the attack on southern Israel, under the guidance of Hamas, according to lists arranged by Palestinian officials. In addition, 151 Palestinacs were published, including some convicted of participating in deadly attacks on the Israelis.
Whether the interruption of the fire extends to the second phase is still uncertain. Two sides were set to start talking about details the next phase more than two weeks ago, but it is not clear whether serious negotiations started.
