Hostage Standoff Escalates: Six More Captives Delivered to Israel During Tense Ceasefire!
On Saturday, Israel prepared to receive six more hostages from Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, after accusations over the return of a misidentified body threatened to derail a fragile truce.
The six, the last living hostages from a group of 33 scheduled to be released in the first stage of the ceasefire agreement reached last month, were expected to be handed over around 8.30 a.m. (0630 GMT), according to Hamas officials.
Four hostages, Eliya Cohen, 27, Tal Shoham, 40, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, were apprehended by Hamas gunmen during their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Another two, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, and Avera Mengistu, 39, have been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza separately under mysterious circumstances about a decade ago.
In exchange, Israel is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in its jails in the latest stage of an exchange that has survived despite a series of setbacks that have threatened to sink it on several occasions.
Late on Thursday, Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by handing over an unidentified body instead of hostage Shiri Bibas’ remains, which were supposed to be returned along with the bodies of her two young sons.
Hamas claimed her remains were mixed in with other human remains recovered from the rubble following an Israeli air strike that killed her and her two sons in November 2023. On Friday, the group handed over another body, which Israeli forensic officials were preparing to examine to determine its identity.
The Bibas family, kidnapped along with their father on October 7, has served as a symbol of Israel’s trauma on that day, and the misidentification of Shiri Bibas’ remains, as well as Hamas’ staged handover of their coffins, outraged Israelis.
The Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel revealed that their captors had killed them on purpose.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to make Hamas “pay the full price” for failing to return the body, but he refrained from abandoning the cease-fire agreement, which went into effect on January 19.
Hamas, which has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire by preventing vital aid supplies from entering Gaza, formally informed Israel of the names of the hostages scheduled to be released on Saturday, indicating that the handover would proceed.
The ceasefire has halted the fighting, but the prospects for a definitive end to the war remain uncertain. Hamas, which killed approximately 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during its attack on Israel, has worked hard to demonstrate that it retains control of Gaza despite heavy losses in the conflict.
According to Palestinian health officials, the Israeli campaign killed at least 48,000 people and reduced much of the enclave to rubble, forcing hundreds of thousands to live in makeshift shelters and rely on aid trucks.
Both sides have stated that they intend to begin second-stage talks, which, according to mediators, will aim to agree on the return of approximately 60 remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
However, hopes for a deal have been dashed by disagreements over the future of Gaza, which have been exacerbated by shock in the region over US President Donald Trump’s proposal to clear the enclave of Palestinians and develop it as a Riviera-style resort under US control.
