Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, whose gaunt appearance shocked Israelis, while Israel began freeing dozens of Palestinians in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, both taken from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attack on the 7th of October, 2023, and Or Levy, abducted from the Nova music festival on the same day, were presented by Hamas gunmen at a podium.
In a display of strength, Hamas militants deployed in central Gaza as they handed the hostages over to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The hostages were then transported in ICRC vehicles to Israeli forces.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the sight of the frail hostages in what appeared to be a staged interview by Hamas as shocking and vowed to address it.
President Isaac Herzog of Israel called the release ceremony cynical and vicious, stating, “This is what a crime against humanity looks like.”
In return for the hostages, Israel is releasing 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that resulted in numerous deaths, as well as 111 individuals detained in Gaza during the war.
In Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a bus carrying 42 freed Palestinian prisoners was met with a jubilant crowd. Some waved Palestinian flags, while others chanted “Allahu akbar” or “God is the most great”.
Among the released Palestinian prisoners was Eyad Abu Shkaidem, who received 18 life sentences in Israel for orchestrating suicide attacks in retaliation for Israel’s 2004 assassinations of former Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi.
For the families of the Israeli hostages held incommunicado in Gaza for over a year, the wait has been a period of intense dread and hope as the moment of reunion approached.
The Hostage Families Forum likened the images of the three hostages to survivors of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.
“These images evoke the horrifying pictures from the liberation of the camps in 1945, the darkest chapter of our history. We have to get ALL THE HOSTAGES out of hell,” the forum stated.
