Hamas releases six hostages in latest exchange with Israel | Israel-Gaza war

Hamas has freed six hostages in the latest exchange with Israel, as heightened tensions between the two sides cast doubt over their fragile ceasefire deal.

The six included three Israeli men seized from the Nova music festival and another abducted while visiting his family in southern Israel when militants stormed across the border in the 7 October attacks that triggered Israel’s 16-month campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Two of the hostages had been held by Hamas for about a decade after they each entered Gaza on their own.

Five of the captives were handed over in staged ceremonies that the Red Cross and Israel have previously condemned, with masked and armed Hamas fighters bringing them out in front of hundreds of Palestinians before transferring them to Red Cross vehicles.

The six hostages are the last living ones to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

In Nuseirat, in central Gaza, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, and Eliya Cohen were made to pose alongside Hamas fighters on the stage. A beaming Shem Tov kissed two militants on the head and blew kisses to the crowd. Hamas has come under heavy criticism for the displays, with Israel, the UN and the Red Cross saying they are cruel and do not respect the dignity of the hostages.

Watching the release, Cohen’s family and friends in Israel chanted “Eliya, Eliya, Eliya!” and cheered when they saw him for the first time. Shem Tov’s grandmother exclaimed in joy as he saw him, crying: “Omer, my joy, my life.”

The Israeli military said the final hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, 36, was released later on Saturday. The Bedouin Israeli crossed on his own into Gaza in 2015 and had been held ever since. His family told Israeli media that Sayed had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The new releases, to be followed by the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, went ahead after tensions mounted over the latest dispute, which was triggered this week when Hamas initially handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys abducted by the militants.

The remains that Hamas transferred with her sons’ bodies on Thursday were later determined to be those of an unidentified Palestinian woman. In response, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed revenge for “a cruel and malicious violation”, while Hamas suggested it had been a mistake.

On Friday night, the Palestinian Mujahedeen Brigades, the small militant group believed to have been holding Bibas and her sons, handed over a second body. The family of Bibas said Israeli forensic authorities had confirmed the remains were hers.

“For 16 months we sought certainty, and now that it’s here, it brings no comfort, though we hope it marks the beginning of closure,” the family said.

The ceasefire deal has paused the war but is nearing the end of its first phase. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, are likely to be even more difficult.