Dana Shem Tov (center) the sister of Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov reacts as she watches with others his televised release by Hamas militants at the family home in Tel Aviv on February 22.

First Phase Of Gaza Cease-Fire Nears End With Release Of 6 Israeli Hostages

22 Feb 2025, 12:09 by RFE/RL · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Join

The U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has released six Israeli hostages -- the last living hostages from a group of 33 that were expected to be freed in the first phase of the Gaza cease-fire.

Hamas had held two of those released for around a decade since they entered Gaza on their own.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a statement on X celebrated their release "from the depths of hell to begin the process of healing and recovery alongside their loving families."

In return, Israel is set to free 602 Palestinian prisoners, including convicted felons and Gazans detained following the start of the war, to complete the final hostage-prisoner swap of the first phase of the truce. Those handed the longest sentences are not allowed back in Gaza and will be sent to a third country.

The multiphase ceasefire went into effect on January 19, but negotiations have not yet started to move to the crucial second phase, which involves a permanent end to the Gaza war.

"The completion of a hostage deal is a humanitarian, moral, and Jewish imperative," Herzog wrote on X.

The conflict broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked settlements in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.

Israel retaliated by launching a devastating war in the Palestinian enclave that has killed tens of thousands of people, according to local authorities, and displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

Hamas has been strongly criticized for its stage-managed release of Israeli hostages, which have included public ceremonies during which hostages are taken on stage.

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross slammed Hamas this week for parading the bodies of dead Israeli hostages in Gaza.

The militant Palestinian group on February 20 handed over the bodies of four hostages to the Red Cross, after presenting their coffins on a stage surrounded by armed militants.

The bodies included two children and their mother Shiri Bibas, but Israeli authorities said the body in the coffin was not hers. This threatened the tenuous cease-fire as Israel accused Hamas of being in “serious violation” of the truce.

However, Hamas delivered another body late on February 21, which Bibas’s family confirmed to be hers.

The Palestinian group insists the family was killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israel says forensics show the mother and her young children were “deliberately” killed by their captors.

The final four sets of remains, completing the hostage release of the first phase, will be released next week.

Mediators say both sides plan to begin a second round of negotiations focused on securing the release of about 60 remaining hostages -- fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive --and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

However, prospects for an agreement have been complicated by disputes over Gaza’s future, further inflamed by regional outrage over U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to remove Palestinians from the enclave and transform it into a U.S.-controlled resort.