Hamas released two soils and was supposed to let four more from Gaza on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, after Israel confirmed that the body that had been dedicated to hours earlier was the one from the Shiri Bibas hostages.
Tal Shoham (40) and Avera Menongista (39) were handed over to the Red Cross in the South Gaza Rafah after being led to the stage by armed Hamas militants. It was expected that four more would be released to Central Gaza shortly after.
Six hostages scheduled for release on Saturday are the last living hostages from the 33 -year -old group, which would be released in the first phase of the trial agreement that entered into force on 19 January.
Four hostages, Shoham, Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, Hamas Gunmen during an attack on Israel, October 7, 2023.
Shoham was abducted by Kibbutz Be’eri, along with his wife and two children, who were released in a short trial in November 2023. The three were taken from the nearby music festival Nova.
Two others, Hisham al-Sayed (36) and Menongist have been holding Hamas since they entered Gaza separately under the inexplicable circumstances ten years ago.
Hundreds of Israelites gathered in the rain in what became known as the hostage square in Tel Aviv, cheering as they watched the edition on the large screen.
In the south, more people lined up the road near the border with Gaza to welcome a convoy that carried the liberated prisoners.
Hamas -directed editions, which included public ceremonies in which the prisoners were taken on stage and some were made to speak, faced high criticism, including the United Nations, which condemned the “pajuing hostages”.
Hamas rejected criticism on Saturday, describing the ceremony as a solemn exhibition of Palestinian unity.
In turn, Israel is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees who held themselves in their prisons in the last phase of the dedication agreement mainly held.
The 445 Gazans will include the Israeli forces rounded off during the war, as well as dozens of convicts who serve long -term or living conditions, according to Hamas.
During the hostage exchange between Hamas and Israel on Thursday, Israel received the remains of brothers Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who had only four years and nine months when they were taken on October 7, 2023. With their mother’s body, Shiri Bibas – but the wrong remains to surrender are Israel. The Israeli Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed joins Power & Politics to talk about how it affects the constant interruption of fire.
The fragile truce in the war between Israel and Hamas’s militants threatened to turn the wrong identification of the body published on Thursday as Bibas, who abduced his two young sons and her husband in Hamas on October 7, 2023.
However late Friday, Hamas surrendered another bodywhich her family said she was confirmed to be hers.
“Last night, our shiri was returned home,” the family said in a statement that said it was identified by the Israeli Institute of Forensic Medicine.
The Bibas family was the trauma emblem that Israel suffered that day. The wrong identification of Shiri Bibasa remains, as well as the styled handover of their coffins from Hamas, resodged the Israelites. Her husband Yarden, seized and assisted separately from his family, was released on February 1.
The Israeli army said that intelligence assessments and the forensic body analysis of the 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel showed that both of them were deliberately killed by their abductors, “in cold blood.”
Israeli military radio, referring to forensic conclusions, said Bibas was probably killed with his children.
Hamas says the Bibas family killed the Israeli air attack. A group named Mujahideen Brigade said it was a family in the state, as confirmed by the Israeli army.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened that Hamas would “pay the full price” because he failed to return his body, but refrained from walking from the fire interruption agreement, which entered into force on January 19.
Hamas, who accused Israel himself of breaking the truce by blocking vital supplies to help in Gaza, although he formally informed Israel about the names of the hostages, which will be published on Saturday in the sign that the handover will continue.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will force Hamas to pay for not letting the body of the Talac Shiri Bibas as agreed. Israeli experts said that one of the four bodies that Hamas handed over Thursday an unidentified woman, not Bibas. Hamas said he would consider the possibility of an error or that the human remains were mixed because of Israeli air attacks.
The consent brought a break in the fight, but the prospect of the final end of the war remains unclear. Hamas suffered to show that he remained in control in Gaza despite the great losses of the war.
The militant group launched a conflict by attacking the Israeli community in which 1,200 killed and took 251 hostages, according to Israel.
The Israeli campaign killed at least 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and has reduced most of the enclave to ruins, leaving hundreds of thousands in improvised shelters and depends on help trucks.
Both sides said they intended to start conversations at the second phase, which the mediators say that the goal is to agree to the return of about 60 remaining hostages, of which less than half are believed to be alive and withdrawal of Israeli troops.
But the hopes of the deal were blurred by disagreements due to the future of Gaza, which deepened their shock throughout the region because of US President Donald Trump’s proposal to clean the Palestinian enclave and develop it as a Riviera -based resort under US control.
