Hamas hands over six Israeli hostages in latest exchange under fragile ceasefire

HAMAS HAS HANDED over six Israeli hostages due to be freed today under the Gaza ceasefire deal to the Red Cross.

Early this morning, Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38, 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.

The ambulances then headed toward a nearby crossing into Israel. 

Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli, had been held in Gaza since entering on his own in 2014. Watching the handover on Israeli media, his family broke out into a Hebrew song, Here Is The Light, as they saw him for the first time for more than a decade.

Three more hostages, Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, were later freed in Nuseirat in central Gaza. All three were abducted from a music festival during the 7 October 2023 attack.

The three men waved on stage while holding their release certificates before their handover to officials from the Red Cross. Shem Tov blew kisses to the crowd, flashed the thumbs up, and even kissed the militant next to him on the head.

A sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who crossed into Gaza on his own several years ago, was handed over to the Red Cross in private this afternoon, Israel’s military confirmed.

His family hailed his return shortly after he crossed the border into Israeli territory. 

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“The Sayed family is moved by Hisham’s return home. After nearly a decade of fighting for Hisham’s return, the long-awaited moment has arrived,” the family said in a statement.

Shoham, who also holds Austrian citizenship and is 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 7 October 2023 attacks.

Shoham’s family told Israeli media they were “starting to breathe again” after seeing him on the stage. His wife, two young children, and three other relatives who had been abducted with him were freed in a November 2023 exchange.

“This is an unforgettable moment, where all emotions are rapidly mixing together. Our Tal is with us,” Shoham’s family said in a statement, calling for a deal the be reached for the release of all those still captive.

There is a window of opportunity; we must not miss it.

The seventh hostage-prisoner exchange under the fragile Gaza ceasefire comes amid heightened anger after the body of one of the hostages that was returned from Gaza on Thursday was not that of Shiri Bibas, as Hamas initially claimed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of committing a “cruel and evil” violation of the Gaza ceasefire deal and vowed revenge as a result.

The family of Shiri Bibas has since confirmed that remains handed over by Hamas late on Friday are hers. 

Hamas has affirmed its “full commitment” to the ongoing ceasefire deal, which has so far seen 19 living Israeli hostages freed from Gaza in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange for the six hostages, the Palestinian prisoner’s media office said on Friday.

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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 who were arrested since Hamas’ 7 October attack.

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 would not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration in the US, has said he is committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.

Hamas took 251 people hostage during the 7 October attack. There are 62 hostages still in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,215 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Palestinian territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

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With reporting from Press Association and AFP

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