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Israel indefinitely delays release of 620 Palestinian prisoners after Israeli hostages freed Hamas hands over six hostages but Israel suspends release of 600 Palestinians
(32 minutes later)
Statement by Netanyahu’s office demands assurance of ‘release of next hostages … without humiliating ceremonies’ Ceasefire in jeopardy as Israel says it will wait ‘until release of next hostages is guaranteed’ and Hamas scraps ‘degrading’ handover ceremonies
Israel says the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be delayed “until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies” at handovers of Israeli captives in Gaza. Hamas released six Israeli hostages on Saturday, but Israel suspended the handover of more than 600 Palestinians it was due to free from its prisons in exchange, putting the five-week-old ceasefire agreement once more in jeopardy.
The statement by Benjamin Netanyahu’s office came early Sunday as vehicles apparently carrying prisoners left the open gates of Ofer prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, only to turn around and go back in. In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “In light of Hamas’ repeated violations – including the disgraceful ceremonies that dishonour our hostages and the cynical use of hostages for propaganda – it has been decided to delay the release of terrorists that was planned for yesterday [Saturday] until the release of the next hostages is ensured, without the humiliating ceremonies.”
The release of 620 Palestinian prisoners had been delayed for several hours and was meant to occur just after six Israeli hostages were on Saturday. It was meant to be the largest one-day prisoner release in the current Gaza ceasefire’s first phase. Israeli authorities had earlier said the release would be delayed “until the release of the next hostages is guaranteed, and without the degrading ceremonies” at handovers of Israeli captives in Gaza.
Five of the six Israeli hostages freed Saturday had been escorted by masked, armed militants in front of a crowd – a display that the UN and others have criticized as cruel after previous handovers. The release of 620 Palestinian prisoners had already been delayed for several hours and was meant to occur just after six Israeli hostages were released on Saturday. Vehicles apparently carrying Palestinian prisoners eventually left the open gates of Ofer prison, only to turn around and go back in.
The Israeli statement cited “ceremonies that demean the dignity of our hostages and the cynical use of the hostages for propaganda purposes”. It was likely a reference to a Hamas video showing two hostages who have yet to be released watching a handover in Gaza on Saturday and speaking under duress. The delay imposes further strain on the precarious truce, which is at a particularly vulnerable moment, between first and second phases. The first phase is due to end next Saturday, but negotiations on the second phase have yet to begin.
Hamas had released the last six living hostages expected under the ceasefire’s first phase, with a week remaining in the initial stage. Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanou issued a statement accusing Israel’s prime minister of “procrastination and stalling tactics”.
Israel’s announcement abruptly put the future of the truce into further doubt. “The [Israeli] occupation’s failure to comply with the release of the seventh batch of prisoners in the exchange deal at the agreed-upon time constitutes a blatant violation of the agreement,” al-Qanou said.
The 620 Palestinian prisoners meant to be freed included 445 men, 23 children aged 15 to 19, and a woman, all seized by Israeli troops in Gaza without charge during the war. While a majority of Israelis want the release of the remaining hostages to be the government’s priority, there is resistance from the right wing of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, which wants the war to resume with the aim of obliterating Hamas.
Also meant to be released are 151 Palestinians serving life or other sentences for attacks against Israelis. Almost 100 would be deported, according to the Palestinian prisoners’ media office. The hostages released by Hamas on Saturday included an Ethiopian-born Israeli and a Bedouin man, both with a history of mental illness, who had been held captive for a decade after they wandered into Gaza on foot.
A Palestinian prisoners’ rights association said they include Nael al-Barghouti, who spent more than 45 years in prison for an attack that killed an Israeli bus driver. Avera Mengistu, aged 39, crossed a barbed wire fence on the Gaza beach in September 2014.
Freed by Hamas on Saturday were three Israeli men seized from the Nova music festival and another taken while visiting family in southern Israel during the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack that triggered the 16-month war in Gaza. The two others had been held for a decade after entering Gaza on their own. “Our family has endured 10 years and five months of unimaginable suffering. During this time, there have been continuous efforts to secure his return, with prayers and pleas, some silent, that remained unanswered until today,” Mengistu’s family said in a statement.
Five were handed over in staged ceremonies that the Red Cross and Israel have condemned as cruel and disrespectful. Hisham al-Sayed, 36, a Bedouin from the Negev desert, walked into Gaza from the east in April 2015 and was detained by Hamas.
Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov and Eliya Cohen were posed alongside Hamas fighters. A beaming Shem Tov, acting under duress, kissed two militants on the head and blew kisses to the crowd. All wore fake army uniforms, though they were not soldiers when abducted. “Why were they holding someone like that who did nothing wrong? He’s a man of peace, a man who wanted to reach Gaza. He loves Gaza, he did not go there as an aggressor,” Sayed’s father, Shaaban, told Israeli public radio earlier in the week. “This was more painful for us than everything else.”
Cohen’s family and friends in Israel chanted “Eliya! Eliya! Eliya!” and cheered. Five of the hostages released on Saturday were handed over in ceremonies that Hamas has used for propaganda and that have been condemned as cruel and disrespectful by the Red Cross.
“You’re heroes,” Shem Tov told his parents as they later embraced, laughing and crying. “You have no idea how much I dreamt of you.” His father, Malki Shem Tov, told public broadcaster Kan that his son had been held alone after the first 50 days and lost 17km (37lbs). In one ceremony, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov and Eliya Cohen were posed alongside armed and masked Hamas fighters in front a large propaganda poster. An overjoyed Shem Tov kissed two militants on the head and blew kisses to the crowd assembled to watch the release.
Earlier Saturday, Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38, had been freed. Mengistu, an Ethiopian Israeli, entered Gaza in 2014. His family told Israeli media he has struggled with mental health issues. Shoham, an Israeli Austrian, had been taken from Kibbutz Be’eri. His wife and two children were freed in a 2023 exchange. Under the terms of a ceasefire deal, Israel was supposed to free 602 Palestinians from its prisons, of which 445 had been captured in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the war. They were due to be released inside Gaza. Of the remaining 157 Palestinians freed, some were due to be deported while others were transferred to the West Bank. Of them, 50 had been serving life sentences.
Later, Israel’s military said Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, had been released. The Bedouin Israeli entered Gaza in 2015. His family has told Israeli media he was previously diagnosed with schizophrenia. The head of the Israeli prison service, Kobi Yakobi, has sought to use the exchanges to make political points. Palestinians freed in an exchange the previous week had been made to wear T-shirts with an Arabic inscription: “We will not forget and we will not forgive”.
Israel’s government did not respond to questions about the delay in releasing prisoners. Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal, with spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanou accusing the Israeli prime minister of “deliberately stalling”. On Saturday, Yakobi prepared sweatshirts for the Palestinians being handed over that said: “I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I will not return until they are destroyed”, as well as bracelets inscribed: “The eternal people do not forget. I will pursue my enemies and overtake them.”
The hostage release followed a heartrending dispute when Hamas on Thursday handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother abducted with her two young boys. The remains were determined to be those of a Palestinian woman. Netanyahu vowed revenge for “a cruel and malicious violation”. Hamas suggested it had been a mistake. The release of six Israelis yesterday brought to 25 the number of hostages freed by Hamas in the first phase of the ceasefire. They also handed over four bodies of hostages who had been killed during the conflict, and are due to hand over four more in the coming week.
Israeli forensic authorities confirmed a body handed over on Friday was that of Bibas. Dr Chen Kugel, head of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, said no evidence had been found that Bibas and her children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, as Hamas has claimed. Kugel did not give a cause. Among the bodies handed over on Thursday were those of two small boys from the same family, Ariel Bibas, four, and his brother Kfir, nine months old, who were kidnapped in the surprise Hamas attack on Israel’s western Negev region on 7 October 2023. The remains of their mother, Shiri Bibas, were also handed over, but only after the body of another woman, presumed to be a Palestinian, was transferred. Hamas claimed it was a mistake but it caused outrage in Israel.
Hamas denied the Israeli military claim, based on forensic evidence and unspecified “intelligence”, that its militants had killed the children “with their bare hands”, calling it a lie aimed at justifying Israeli military actions against civilians in Gaza. The US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has encouraged the parties to move forward to a second phase, which would involve the release of the remaining 60 or so hostages (at least half of whom are believed by Israeli authorities to be dead), as well as hundreds more Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and the complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
The ceasefire deal has paused the deadliest and most devastating fighting ever between Israel and Hamas, but there are fears the war will resume. Donald Trump has however continued to offer Netanyahu support should he choose to go back to war, pointing to the incident involving Bibas’s body.
Hamas has said it will release four bodies next week, completing the truce’s first phase. After that, Hamas will hold more than 60 hostages – about half believed to be alive. “He is not torn. He wants to go in,” Trump told Fox News Radio on Friday. “He is just so angry at what happened yesterday and he should be.”
Talks on the ceasefire’s second phase are yet to start, but negotiations are likely to be more difficult.
Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu, with the backing of Donald Trump, says he is committed to destroying Hamas’s military and governing capacities and returning all hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble. At its height, the war displaced 90% of Gaza’s population.
The October 7 attack killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have died in the war.