Updated February 22, 2025 at 09:12 AM ET
TEL AVIV — Hamas released six Israeli hostages early Saturday in three different locations throughout Gaza, in exchange for more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees freed from Israeli jails. This is the largest number of Palestinian prisoners to be released at once since the beginning of the ceasefire which began in January.
This comes two days after Hamas returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages, one of which was supposed to be Shiri Bibas, a mother who was 32 years old at the time of her kidnapping. Israeli forensic testing showed that those remains were in fact that of an unidentified woman. On Friday, Hamas returned a second body, which Israeli authorities confirmed was that of Bibas.
Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken hostage from the Kibbutz Be'eri, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were released from the southern city of Rafah. Under a light drizzle of rain and to the chants of "God is Great," masked Hamas militants led the hostages one by one to a stage, where Shoham made a small speech.
Three other hostages – Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Omer Wenkert, 23 – were released a few hours later in a separate ceremony at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The three were also brought on a stage, flanked by masked Hamas gunmen. They waved and gave thumbs up to the assembled crowd, while Tov kissed the foreheads of two of the Hamas gunmen next to him.
The sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, was released from Gaza City without a ceremony.
Al-Sayed, a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel, and Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli man, had been in captivity for around a decade, after crossing into Gaza on their own in separate incidents.
The other four hostages were all taken in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Cohen, Tov and Wenkert had been at the Nova music festival when the attack began. Shoham had been with his family, most of whom were also taken hostage to Gaza but were released in an earlier deal.
In exchange for the hostages released today, along with the bodies of four hostages returned earlier this week, Palestinian authorities expect Israel to release more than 600 prisoners and detainees. Those expected to be released include prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, but also many — including women and minors — who had been held in administrative detention without charge or sentencing. More than 400 are Palestinians who were detained in Gaza during the war, and will be released in the southern city of Rafah. In total, it's the largest number of Palestinians freed at one time during this war.
This is the eighth such hostage-for-prisoner exchange in a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that has been holding for more than a month. Hamas has also agreed to release four more bodies of hostages next week.
In exchange, Israel is acceding to Hamas' request to allow heavy machinery to unearth the bodies of Palestinians buried under rubble. It is also allowing mobile homes into Gaza for those whose homes were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the 15-month-war sparked by the Hamas attack, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the arrangement.
Israel says these agreements were reached through mediators during recent negotiations in Cairo.
Hostage body Mistake
The family of hostage Shiri Bibas, who was 32 years old at the time of her kidnapping, said the remains of a body returned to Israel late Friday night are hers.
"Last night, our Shiri was returned home," the Bibas family said in a statement. "Following the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, we received this morning the news we had dreaded — our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family for rest."
The other hostage remains returned were those of the Bibas boys Ariel and Kfir, ages 4 and nine months at the time of their capture. Also returned were the remains of Oded Lifshitz, 84. All were taken hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Hamas says the hostages were killed by Israeli air strikes during the conflict. Israel says "all three were brutally murdered in Hamas captivity during the early weeks of the war," according to a statement from the prime minister's office. The statement did not elaborate on how they were killed.
Shiri Bibas' husband Yarden was also taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023. He was released alive earlier this month.
The Bibas family and their two small redheaded children had become a symbol of the hostage struggle in Israel throughout the war, with posters of their faces plastered along city streets and commemorations held on the children's birthdays.
Dozens of hostages remain in Gaza
The first phase of the ceasefire is set to end March 2, and there will still be 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, nearly half of them confirmed dead, according to Israel. Talks about the next phase of the deal — which were supposed to begin weeks ago — have yet to take place.
Hamas says it is ready to "engage immediately" in negotiations to extend the ceasefire and release all remaining Israeli hostages in one batch and not in stages, in exchange for Israel freeing more Palestinian prisoners.
"These steps reflect the seriousness of [Hamas] in implementing the terms of the agreement as stated, and in response to the efforts of the mediators," Hamas said in a statement.
But far-right members of Israel's governing coalition oppose further hostage-prisoner swaps and call for Israel to renew fighting in Gaza against Hamas.
The latest Israel-Hamas conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants from Hamas and other groups broke through the border with Israel and killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli authorities. In the ensuing 15 months of war, more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza were killed in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza health authorities.
Anas Baba in Rafah, Itay Stern in Tel Aviv, Yanal Jabarin in Jerusalem, Ahmed Abuhamda in Cairo, and Nuha Musleh in Ramallah contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 NPR
