The continuous exchange of hostages-prisoners between Hamas and Israel is the culmination of the last stage of the first phase of the ceasefire accord. As a part of the exchange, six Israeli hostages, namely Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed, Tal Shoham, and Averu Mengistu, will be released.
Hamas also released two Israeli hostages, Averu Mengistu and Tal Shoham, to the Red Cross. They were escorted on stage before they were taken into custody by the Red Cross officials. The convoy with the released hostages has now left, and they are being guarded by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip.
As a concession, Israel has committed to the release of 600 Palestinian prisoners who were held in Gaza since October 7.
In Tel Aviv, there was a massive crowd at ‘Hostages Square’ where they watched the live broadcast of the release.
Hamas also released the bodies of four Israeli hostages, the Bibas children among them, on Thursday. But Israel claimed Hamas breached the ceasefire pact that became active on January 19 and was due to lapse in early March. Israel alleged the breach based on the premise that one of the corpses first identified as that of Shiri Bibas, mother of the two kids, had been wrongly identified.
Following additional forensic analysis, Israeli officials established that the corpse was indeed that of Shiri Bibas.
“After the identification at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we had received the worst news we could have imagined. Our Shiri was killed in captivity and now came home to be buried among her sons, husband, sister, and all her family,” the Bibas family released in a statement.
Since the October 7 attack, which was followed by full-scale war, 1,215 individuals have been killed in Israel. In retaliation, Israel’s military campaign has claimed 48,319 lives in Gaza, figures from the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry indicate, which are regarded as credible by the United Nations.
