Palestinian extremist group Hamas on Saturday turned over two more hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza under a fragile ceasefire deal with Israel, according to a live broadcast of the handover ceremony.
The two men, Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu, were released in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, with four more hostages to be freed later in the day as part of the latest hostages-for-prisoners swap in the conflict.
This followed confirmation in Israel that the body of a woman handed over on Friday is that of kidnapped Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas.
Masked and armed Hamas fighters guarded a stage in Rafah where Shoham, 40, was forced to say a few words before the two men were handed over to Red Cross workers.
Crowds watched on amid loud music and Palestinian flags, standing between buildings laid to ruins during more than 16 months of war.
Along with another of the six hostages due for release, Mengistu, 39, had been held by Hamas for around 10 years. Prior to their abduction, they had crossed the border into the Gaza Strip voluntarily. According to Israeli sources, both men are dealing with psychological issues.
The other four hostages, Omer Shem-Tov, 22, Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Wenkert, 23, and long-term captive Hisham al-Sayed, 36, are set to be handed over in Nuseirat in central Gaza.
In return for the six men’s release, Israel is expected to free 602 Palestinian prisoners from its jails, including 50 serving long sentences, according to Palestinian sources.
The other four men due for release were abducted on October 7, 2023, by Hamas and other extremist groups during their unprecedented massacre in southern Israel, which resulted in 1,200 deaths. More than 250 people were taken hostage that day.
Three of the group set for release were kidnapped at the Nova music festival near the Gaza border, and one was seized from the nearby Be’eri kibbutz while visiting relatives there.
Hamas is releasing three of the six hostages earlier than planned, after they were originally due to be freed next weekend in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.
The militia wanted to ensure that the release of dozens of its high-ranking members from Israeli prisons did not fail at the last minute, media reported.
Since the start of the ceasefire in the Gaza war on January 19, Hamas has released 19 hostages in several rounds, as well as four bodies, including Bibas and her two young sons. In addition, five Thai nationals kidnapped from Israel were released independently of the agreement.
Body of ShiriBibas returned to Israel
Earlier on Saturday, the Nir Oz kibbutz confirmed the identity of Bibas, whose body was passed to the Red Cross late on Friday.
“The kibbutz announces with deep pain that she was murdered while being held hostage in Gaza,” said a spokeswoman.
Hamas turned over the bodies of the 32-year-old German-Israeli woman’s sons, Ariel and Kfir – who were just 4 years old and 9 months old when they were abducted – along with another deceased captive, 84-year-old peace activist Oded Lifshitz, on Thursday.
However, Israeli forensic experts later determined that the remains in a fourth coffin did not belong to Shiri Bibas as Hamas initially claimed.
The militia later admitted a possible mistake that resulted in the remains of another, unknown woman being transferred. The mix-up – whether deliberate or accidental – caused great outrage in Israel.
In a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the Bibas family said experts at Israel’s Institute of Forensic Medicine had positively identified their releative’s body.
“Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest,” it said.
“Despite our fears about their fate, we continued to hope that we would get to embrace them, and now we are in pain and heartbroken.”
The family continued to demand the immediate return of all the remaining hostages.
“There is no more important goal. There can be no rehabilitation without them,” they said.
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