Hamas released two Israeli hostages early Saturday among six to be freed in exchange for more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails. This is the largest number of Palestinian prisoners to be released
This comes two days after Hamas returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages, one of which was supposed to be Shiri Bibas, a mother who was 32 years old at the time of her kidnapping. Israeli forensic testing showed that those remains were in fact that of an unidentified woman. On Friday, Hamas returned a second body, which Israeli authorities confirmed was that of Bibas
Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken hostage from the Kibbutz Be’eri, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were released from the southern city of Rafah. Under a light drizzle of rain and to the chants of “God is Great,” masked Hamas militants led the hostages one by one to a stage, where Shoham made a small speech.
The other four hostages expected to be released Saturday in a separate ceremony at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza were Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Omer Wenkert, 23 and Hisham Al-Sayed, 36.
Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli man, and Sayed, a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel, have been in captivity for around a decade after they crossed into Gaza on their own in separate incidents.
The other four hostages were all taken in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Cohen, Tov and Wenkert had been at the Nova music festival when the attack began. Shoham had been with his family, most of whom were also taken hostage to Gaza but were released in an earlier deal.
In exchange for the hostages released today, along with the bodies of four hostages returned earlier this week, Palestinian authorities expect Israel to release more than 600 prisoners and detainees. Those expected to be released include prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, but also many — including women and minors — who had been held in administrative detention without charge or sentencing. More than 400 are Palestinians who were detained in Gaza during the war, and will be released in the southern city of Rafah. In total, it’s the largest number of Palestinians freed at one time during this war.
This is the eighth such hostage-for-prisoner exchange in a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that has been holding for more than a month. Hamas has also agreed to release four more bodies of hostages next week.
In exchange, Israel is acceding to Hamas’ request to allow heavy machinery to unearth the bodies of Palestinians buried under rubble. It is also allowing mobile homes into Gaza for those whose homes were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the 15-month-war sparked by the Hamas attack, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the arrangement.
Israel says these agreements were reached through mediators during recent negotiations in Cairo.
Hostage body Mistake
The family of hostage Shiri Bibas, who was 32 years old at the time of her kidnapping, said the remains of a body returned to Israel late Friday night are hers.
“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” the Bibas family said in a statement. “Following the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, we received this morning the news we had dreaded — our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family for rest.”
The other hostage remains returned were those of the Bibas boys Ariel and Kfir, at the time of their capture. Also returned were the remains of Oded Lifshitz, 84. All were taken hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Hamas says the hostages were killed by Israeli air strikes during the conflict. Israel says “all three were brutally murdered in Hamas captivity during the early weeks of the war,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. The statement did not elaborate on how they were killed.
Source: NPR
