Hamas has released five out of the six hostages scheduled for release in Gaza on Saturday, marking the final group of living captives agreed upon under the ceasefire deal brokered in January.
The first two hostages, Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38, were handed over in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, on Saturday morning.
Shoham was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7, 2023, attacks, while Mengistu, an Israeli from Ashkelon, had crossed into Gaza in 2014.
Following their release, they were transferred to Israeli military custody by the Red Cross, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Meanwhile, a separate handover took place in Nuseirat, central Gaza, where three more hostages—Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, and Omer Wenkert—were also released to the Red Cross in a heavily orchestrated event.
Thousands, including Hamas fighters, gathered at the scene, where children wore shirts bearing images of deceased Hamas leaders.
The three hostages appeared frail but seemingly in better condition than some of those previously released.
Omer Shem Tov, in particular, was seen interacting with some Hamas fighters on stage and blowing a kiss toward the crowd.
A sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, 37, a Bedouin Israeli from southern Israel who entered Gaza in 2015, was expected to be released in Nuseirat but is now set to be handed over at a different location.
Both al-Sayed and Mengistu reportedly suffer from serious mental health conditions.
In anticipation of their release, crowds gathered at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
Among the freed hostages, Shoham was one of four who had been abducted during the October 7 attacks. Cohen, 27, Shem Tov, 22, and Wenkert, 23, were all kidnapped from the Nova music festival, while Shoham was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri along with his wife, children, and mother-in-law. His family members were freed in November 2023.
Hamas announced on Friday that it expects Israel to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in return.
Among them, 50 are serving life sentences, 60 have long-term sentences, and 445 were detained in Gaza since October 7 and have not been charged.
Before their handover in Rafah, Shoham and Mengistu were brought onto a stage under the watch of armed and masked Hamas militants.
Shoham was handed documents and made to address the gathered crowd.
Meanwhile, the remains of another hostage, Shiri Bibas, arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday night. Her remains were expected to be among those of four hostages returned by Hamas on Thursday, alongside her two sons, Kfir and Ariel, and another captive, Oded Lifshitz.
However, Israeli forensic tests revealed that while the remains of the two boys and Lifshitz were identified, the fourth body was not Bibas, nor did it match any other known Israeli hostage, sparking outrage.
A convoy carrying Bibas’ confirmed remains, transferred by the Red Cross, arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday night.
“Last night, our Shiri was brought home. After the identification process at the Institute for Forensic Medicine, we received the news this morning that we had feared: our Shiri was murdered in captivity,” her family stated through the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Saturday.
Following Saturday’s releases, Hamas and its allies still hold 63 Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Israeli officials estimate that at least 32 of them are dead, including soldier Hadar Goldin, who was taken captive in 2014.
If Hamas follows through with the planned release of four more hostage bodies next week, the initial phase of the exchange agreement will be completed.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to extend the ceasefire have resumed after a two-week delay.
On Saturday, Hamas signaled its willingness to release all remaining Israeli hostages—both alive and deceased—in exchange for a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza as part of the next phase of the ceasefire deal.
