Six Israeli hostages freed from Gaza as Palestinian prisoner release delayed

Six Israeli hostages were released in Gaza on Saturday, but the release of about 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange was delayed for reasons unclear. It was set to be the largest swap under a ceasefire agreement that began last month.

An Israel official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that a decision would be taken on “next steps” on the release after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had held a “security consultation” on Saturday evening. Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanou in a statement called the delay a “blatant violation of the agreement.”

The Israeli hostages were handed over Saturday in three separate locations inside Gaza. Ethiopian-born Avera Mengistu, 38, who has been held in Gaza for more than a decade since crossing into the enclave, and Tal Shoham, 40, who was kidnapped from his family home in Kibbutz Beeri during the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, were released in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The men wore hooded tracksuits as they were released in front of a cheering crowd, to be handed over to the Red Cross.

Later on Saturday, Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; and Omer Wenkert, 23, were released in the central city of Nuseirat. All three were kidnapped as they attended the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.

Two unreleased hostages were brought in a vehicle to watch the release of the three hostages, a video posted by Hamas showed. The Hostages Families Forum confirmed that the two men were Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa Dalal.

In the afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces said that Hisham al-Sayed, 37, a Bedouin who like Mengistu wandered into Gaza around a decade ago, had returned to Israeli territory. The families of both men who voluntarily entered Gaza say they had mental health issues.

More than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are expected to be released in return, though it was unclear exactly when that would happen amid reports of a delay.

Some 445 of the Palestinians were detained in Gaza during the course of the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. The list includes 50 prisoners serving life sentences and 60 serving lengthy terms. One woman and 18 minors were on the list. A total of 97 will be deported to exile, it said.

Among the most high-profile prisoners is Nael Barghouti, 67. Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner after 44 years incarcerated, was jailed in 1978 after being convicted of killing an Israeli bus driver. He was released in a previous prisoner exchange in 2011 but was rearrested three years later and had his original sentence reinstated. Some 41 of the prisoners due to be released Saturday were freed in the same 2011 exchange but rearrested, according to Palestinian authorities.

Barghouti is expected to be released into exile in Egypt and barred from returning to his home village of Kobar in the occupied West Bank.

The exchange is the first since the ceasefire deal threatened to be derailed earlier this week, after Hamas released an unidentified body instead of that of Shiri Bibas who was 32 when she was kidnapped along with her 4-year-old and 8½-month-old sons during the Hamas-led assault on Israeli communities near Gaza.

Hamas said that the remains had been mixed up in the Israeli airstrike that it claimed had killed Shiri and her children, releasing a second body on Friday which the family has now confirmed is that of Bibas. Netanyahu had accused Hamas of “cynically” refusing to return her remains. The Israeli military said Friday that the two children, whose bodies were handed over on Wednesday, were “brutally murdered,” citing autopsy findings. The Bibas family on Saturday requested that the exact details of how the family were killed not be published, saying it had not received any confirmation from official sources.

“For 16 months, we sought certainty, and now that we have it, there is no comfort in it, but we hope for the beginning of a closure,” the family said.

The Israeli hostages released Saturday are the last live captives scheduled to be freed under the first six-week phase of the ceasefire deal agreed to by Israel and Hamas. Four more bodies of hostages are due to be released next week before the first phase concludes. At that stage, 58 hostages will remain in Gaza, more than half of whom are believed to be dead.

There is uncertainty over whether the envisaged second phase of the deal will proceed. Hamas has said it is willing to release all remaining hostages to accelerate the second phase of the deal, which stipulates the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza, but negotiations have stalled.

Hostage families have demanded an explanation from Netanyahu on why there have been delays.

As the final living hostages in the first phase of the deal were released, Israelis gathered in the rain to celebrate and mourn in the public plaza in Tel Aviv that has become known as Hostages Square.

Galit Berman Miron, 48, sat next to a memorial for the Bibas family, who became among the most high-profile victims of Hamas’s attack. “I don’t want to leave it,” she said. “It is also a tragedy when they come back, because they suffered so much.”

Yael Alexander, the mother of Edan Alexander, 21, a soldier from New Jersey who holds both American and Israeli citizenship who is still held captive, had traveled the square to watch the releases.

“I just felt that I want to be next to everyone,” she said. “I’m feeling a lot of joy for the families, that they can reunite, and I’m waiting for my son.”

Soldiers including Alexander are due to be released in the next stage of the agreement.

“We all need to be focused on the second stage of the deal,” said Yael Alexander. “There are still dozens of young men alive.”

Iman Nafeh, the wife of Barghouti, said that Israeli authorities had prevented her from leaving the West Bank to travel to Egypt to greet her husband upon his expulsion. “I’m happy for him that he’s going to be released and he’s alive,” she said, citing the deaths of 58 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian figures.

“But I’m sad that I’m not going to be with him, not going to be with him. It’s mixed emotions.”

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Heidi Levine contributed from Tel Aviv. Hajar Harb contributed from London.