Hamas released three Israeli hostages on Saturday, marking the fifth group freed under a tenuous Gaza ceasefire. Israel condemned the “cruel” nature of the handover and expressed concern over the hostages’ frail physical condition.
In exchange, Israel is set to release 183 prisoners. AFP journalists in the occupied West Bank observed a bus transporting freed Palestinian detainees from an Israeli prison to the city of Ramallah.
This marks the fifth exchange since the truce began last month, with talks expected to follow on establishing a more permanent resolution to the conflict.
The exchange coincided with global outrage over former U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for the United States to take control of Gaza and displace its population.
The released hostages—Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami, and Eli Sharabi—had been captured during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which triggered the ongoing 15-month conflict.
According to the Israeli military, the three crossed back into Israeli territory.
In Tel Aviv, jubilant crowds celebrated while watching live footage of the hostages being paraded by masked gunmen on stage in Deir el-Balah before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
However, their thin and pale appearance quickly overshadowed the celebrations, raising concerns about their condition.
The staged handover also included coerced statements from the hostages, in which they expressed support for continuing the Israel-Hamas truce negotiations.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum described the scenes as “painful evidence” of the urgency to secure the release of all remaining captives.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the treatment of the hostages, calling it “a crime against humanity,” and urged the world to take note of their ordeal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office labeled the images from Gaza as “shocking.”
Each hostage endured severe personal tragedy. Sharabi, 52, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Beeri, where militants killed his wife and two daughters. Ben Ami, 56, who holds dual Israeli-German citizenship, was abducted with his wife, who was released earlier during the war. Levy was taken from the Nova music festival, where his wife was killed by militants.
Former hostage Yarden Bibas, released last week, urged Netanyahu to prioritize the return of his wife and two young children, whose deaths Hamas had previously claimed but Israel has not confirmed.
The ceasefire, brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, has so far facilitated the release of 21 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The agreement’s initial 42-day phase aims to free 11 additional hostages. Following Saturday’s exchange, an Israeli delegation will head to Doha to negotiate the truce’s next phase, focusing on securing more hostage releases and advancing toward a permanent end to the conflict.
During the October 2023 attack, Hamas militants captured 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in captivity. The Israeli military estimates that 34 of these are deceased. Meanwhile, Israel’s retaliatory actions in Gaza have resulted in over 47,000 deaths, primarily civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry, which the United Nations has deemed reliable.