Hamas freed two hostages and was set to release four more from Gaza on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, after Israel confirmed that a body handed over hours earlier was that of hostage Shiri Bibas.
Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were handed over to the Red Cross in southern Gaza’s Rafah after they were led onto a stage by armed Hamas militants. Four more were expected to be released in central Gaza soon after.
The six hostages slated for release on Saturday are the last living hostages from a group of 33 due to be freed in the first stage of the ceasefire deal that took effect on Jan. 19.
Four of the hostages, Shoham, Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, were seized by Hamas gunmen during their attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Shoham was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri along with his wife and two children, who were freed in a brief truce in November 2023. The three others were taken from the nearby Nova music festival.
Two others, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, and Mengistu have been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza separately under unexplained circumstances around a decade ago.
Hundreds of Israelis gathered in the rain in what has become known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, cheering as they watched the release on a large screen.
Further south, more people lined the road near the Gaza border to welcome the convoy carrying the freed captives.
The Hamas-directed releases, which have included public ceremonies in which captives are taken on stage and some made to speak, have faced mounting criticism, including from the United Nations, which denounced the “parading of hostages.”
Hamas rejected the criticism on Saturday, describing the ceremonies as a solemn show of Palestinian unity.
In return, Israel is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in its jails in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal that has largely held.
They will include 445 Gazans rounded up by Israeli forces during the war, as well as dozens of convicts serving lengthy or life terms, according to Hamas.
During a hostage exchange between Hamas and Israel on Thursday, Israel received the remains of brothers Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were only four years old and nine months old when they were taken on Oct. 7, 2023. They were supposed to be sent home with the body of their mother, Shiri Bibas — but the wrong remains were handed over to Israel. Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed joins Power & Politics to discuss how this impacts the ongoing ceasefire.
The fragile truce in the war between Israel and Hamas militants had been threatened with derailment by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday as that of Bibas, who was kidnapped with her two young sons and her husband in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
However late on Friday, Hamas handed over another body, which her family said had been confirmed to be hers.
“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” the family said in a statement, which said she had been identified by Israel’s Institute of Forensic Medicine.
The Bibas family has been an emblem of the trauma suffered by Israel on that day. The misidentification of the remains of Shiri Bibas, as well as the staged handover of their coffins by Hamas outraged Israelis. Her husband Yarden, seized and helped separately from his family, was freed Feb. 1.
The Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel showed both had been killed deliberately by their captors, “in cold blood.”
Israel’s Army Radio, citing the forensic conclusions, said Bibas was likely slain with her children.
Hamas says the Bibas family was killed by an Israeli airstrike. A group called the Mujahideen Brigades said it was holding the family, which was confirmed by the Israeli military.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to make Hamas “pay the full price” for failing to return the body but he refrained from walking away from the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Jan. 19.
Hamas, which has itself accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire by blocking vital aid supplies into Gaza, nonetheless formally informed Israel of the names of the hostages to be released on Saturday in a sign the handover would go ahead.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will make Hamas pay for failing to release the body of hostage Shiri Bibas as agreed. Israeli specialists said one of four bodies handed over by Hamas on Thursday was an unidentified woman and not Bibas. Hamas said it would look into the possibility of an error or that human remains were mixed due to Israeli airstrikes.
The ceasefire has brought a pause in the fighting, but prospects of a definitive end to the war remain unclear. Hamas has been at pains to demonstrate that it remains in control in Gaza despite heavy losses in the war.
The militant group triggered the conflict by its attack on Israeli communities that killed 1,200 and took 251 hostages, according to Israel.
The Israeli campaign has killed at least 48,000 people, the Palestinian health authorities say, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble, leaving some hundreds of thousands in makeshift shelters and dependent on aid trucks.
Both sides have said they intend to start talks on a second stage, which mediators say aim to agree the return of around 60 remaining hostages, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
But hopes of a deal have been clouded by disagreements over the future of Gaza, that have been deepened by shock across the region over U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to clear the enclave of Palestinians and develop it as a Riviera-style resort under U.S. control.
