Hamas freed two hostages and was set to release four more from Gaza on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, after Israel confirmed that a body handed over hours earlier was that of hostage Shiri Bibas.
Tal Shoham, 40 and Avera Mengistu, 39, were handed over to the Red Cross in southern Gaza's Rafah after they were led onto a stage by armed Hamas militants. Four more were expected to be released in central Gaza soon after.
The six hostages slated for release on Saturday are the last living hostages from a group of 33 due to be freed in the first stage of the ceasefire deal that took effect on 19 January.
Four of the hostages, Shoham, Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, were seized by Hamas gunmen during their attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Two others, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, and Mengistu have been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza separately under unexplained circumstances around a decade ago.
The Hamas-directed releases, which have included public ceremonies in which captives are taken on stage and some made to speak, have faced mounting criticism, including from the United Nations, which denounced the "parading of hostages".
In return, Israel is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in its jails in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal that has largely held.
They will include 445 Gazans rounded up by Israeli forces during the war, as well as dozens of convicts serving lengthy or life terms, according to Hamas.
BIBAS SLAIN
The fragile truce in the war between Israel and Hamas militants had been threatened with derailment by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday as that of Bibas, who was kidnapped with her two young sons and her husband in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
However, late on Friday, Hamas handed over another body, which her family said had been confirmed to be hers.
"Last night, our Shiri was returned home," her family said in a statement, which said she had been identified by Israel's Institute of Forensic Medicine.
The Bibas family has been an emblem of the trauma suffered by Israel on that day. The misidentification of the remains of Shiri Bibas, as well as the staged handover of their coffins by Hamas outraged
Israelis. Her husband Yarden, seized and held separately from his family, was freed on 1 February.
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 showed both had been killed deliberately by their captors, "in cold blood".
Israel's Army Radio, citing the forensic conclusions, said Bibas was likely slain with her children.
Hamas says the Bibas family was killed by an Israeli airstrike. A group called the Mujahideen Brigades said it was holding the family, which was confirmed by the Israeli military.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to make Hamas "pay the full price" for failing to return the body but he refrained from walking away from the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on 19 January.
Hamas, which has itself accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire by blocking vital aid supplies into Gaza, nonetheless formally informed Israel of the names of the hostages to be released on Saturday in a sign the handover would go ahead.
The ceasefire has brought a pause in the fighting, but prospects of a definitive end to the war remain unclear. Hamas has been at pains to demonstrate that it remains in control in Gaza despite heavy losses in the war.
The militant group triggered the conflict by its attack on Israeli communities that killed 1,200 and took 251 hostages, according to Israel.
The Israeli campaign has killed at least 48,000 people, the Palestinian health authorities say, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble, leaving some hundreds of thousands in makeshift shelters and dependent on aid trucks.
Both sides have said they intend to start talks on a second stage, which mediators say aim to agree the return of around 60 remaining hostages, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
But hopes of a deal have been clouded by disagreements over the future of Gaza, that have been deepened by shock across the region over U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to clear the enclave of Palestinians and develop it as a Riviera-style resort under U.S. control.
