Hamas freed the first two of six Israeli hostages due to be released Saturday even as heightened tension between the adversaries clouded the future of the fragile ceasefire deal.
The two hostages — Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39 — were put into Red Cross ambulances after being brought out onto a stage by masked and armed Hamas fighters in front of a crowd in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Soon after, the Israeli military confirmed that the two had been brought into Israel.
The latest hostage release, along with the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, is going ahead after tensions mounted over a grisly and heart-wrenching dispute triggered this week when Hamas initially handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys abducted by militants.
The remains that Hamas transferred with her sons’ bodies on Thursday were later determined to be those of an unidentified Palestinian woman. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge for “a cruel and malicious violation,” while Hamas suggested it had been a mistake.
On Friday night, the small militant group believed to have been holding Bibas and her sons — the Palestinian Mujahedeen Brigades — said it handed over a second body. On Saturday morning, Bibas’ family said Israeli forensic authorities had confirmed the remains were hers.
Hamas to release 6 Israeli hostages as Israel frees 600 Palestinians
“For 16 months we sought certainty, and now that it’s here, it brings no comfort, though we hope it marks the beginning of closure,” the family said.
The dispute over the body’s identity raised new doubt about the ceasefire deal, which has paused over 15 months of war but is nearing the end of its first phase. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal, are likely to be even more difficult.
The six hostages being freed Saturday are the last living ones to be released under the ceasefire’s first phase.
Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli, had been held in Gaza since entering on his own in 2014. Watching the handover on Israeli media, Mengistu’s family broke out into a Hebrew song, “Here is the Light,” as they saw him for the first time in more than a decade.
Shoham, from the northern Israeli village of Ma’ale Tzviya, was visiting his wife’s family in Kibbutz Be’eri when Hamas militants stormed into the community during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
The family of Tal Shoham told Israeli media they were “starting to breathe again” after seeing him on the stage. Shoham’s wife, two young children, and three other relatives who had been abducted with him were freed in a November 2023 exchange.
Hamas to return 4 Israeli bodies, including a mother and her 2 young children
The others to be freed include Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; and Omer Wenkert, 23. All three were abducted from a music festival during the Oct. 7 attack. Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who also crossed into Gaza on his own years ago, is also to be returned to Israel as part of the deal.
More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange, the Palestinian prisoners media office said Friday. The prisoners set for release include 50 serving life sentences, 60 with long sentences, 47 who were released under a previous hostage-for-prisoner exchange and 445 prisoners from Gaza arrested since the war began.
Hamas has said it will also release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. If that plan is carried out, Hamas would retain about 60 hostages, about half of whom are believed to be alive.
Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, says he’s committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
Trump’s proposal to remove about 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so the U.S. can own and rebuild it has thrown the ceasefire into further doubt. His idea has been welcomed by Netanyahu but universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries.
Trump said Friday that he was “a little surprised” by rejections of the proposal by Egypt and Jordan and that he would not impose it.
“I’ll tell you, the way to do it is my plan. I think that’s the plan that really works. But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it,” Trump said in a Fox News interview.
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Israel’s military offensive killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble. At its height, the war displaced 90% of Gaza’s population. Many have returned to their homes to find nothing left and no way of rebuilding.