Palestinian fighters released six Israeli hostages on Saturday, with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who should be released in exchange under a fragile truce of Gaza which approaches the end of its first phase.
The release of the last group of living hostages under the first phase of the truce involves two emotional days in Israel, where the remains of another hostage, Shiri Bibas, were identified after the initial transfer of a different body.
Bibas and his two young sons, among dozens captive during the attack on Hamas against Israel who sparked more than 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip, had become symbols of the test suffered by Israeli hostages .
During a ceremony in Nuseirat, in the center of Gaza, Masked Hamas brought a scene Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Israeli-Argentin Omer Wenkert, 23.
An AFP correspondent said they had greeted while holding liberation certificates before their transfer to the Red Cross and return to Israeli soil.
During a ceremony similar to Rafah, in the south of Gaza, the combatants handed Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38, who both seemed dark.
Shoham was designed to contact the rally, flanked by masked armed men dressed in black.
In the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, hundreds of people who gathered on a site known as “Square Hostages” applauded and cried while watching a live show.
A sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed, 37, was then released and brought back to Israeli territory, said the army.
Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim, and Mengistu, an Ethiopian Jew, had been detained in Gaza for about a decade after their entry into the territory individually.
“Our family has endured 10 years and five months of unimaginable suffering,” said Mengistu’s family in a statement.
Sayed’s family called him “a long -awaited moment” and said they were “moved”.
Shoham parents cried and kissed as they watched his transfer, showed a video published by the Israeli government.
“We have seen that Tal seems to consider the circumstances. A huge weight is removed from us, “said the family of the Austrian-Israeli national double in a statement.
The outings are noted from the first phase of a cease-fire contract which started on January 19 and is expected to expire in early March.
Well practiced ceremony
Under a cold winter rain in Rafah and Nuseirat, Hamas organized a show of strength after months of bombing and strikes which killed the best leaders of the group.
In what has become a well -practiced ceremony since the start of the truce, stages have been installed in front of large posters promoting the cause of combatants or renting fallen fighters.
Some fighters have held rifles, other rocket launchers, while nationalist Palestinian music sagged.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which facilitated the exchanges of hostage prisoners, called on several occasions so that transfers occur in a worthy manner.
The plea group of the Palestinian prisoner club said that Israel would release 602 detainees on Saturday, most of the Gazans placed in police custody during the war, as part of the last exchange.
The ceasefire has so far seen 24 living Israeli hostages released from Gaza in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons.
Thursday, the first transfer of body of the hostages took place under the truce.
But there was anger in Israel after the analysis concluded that the remains of Shiri Bibas were not among the four returned bodies.
Hamas then admitted a possible “body mixture”, which it attributed to the Israeli bombing of the region.
Late Friday, the Red Cross confirmed the transfer of more human remains to Israel “at the request of both parties”.
Early on Saturday, the Bibas family said in a statement that after an identification process: “We received the news that we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, her husband, her sister and her whole family to rest. »»
Internal pressure
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – under domestic pressure on his manipulation of war and hostages – swore Hamas “the total price” for what he described as a violation of the truce agreement on the return of Shiri Bibas.
The Israeli army said that after an analysis of the remains, the Palestinian fighters killed the boys from Bibas, Ariel and Kfir, “with bare hands” in November 2023.
The family said on Saturday that they had “not received such details from official sources”.
Hamas has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed them and their mother at the start of the war.
