Rafah (Gaza Strip): Under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, five out of six Israeli hostages were handed over to the Red Cross on Saturday. In two separate ceremonies in Gaza, masked and armed Hamas fighters brought the five hostages onto a stage in front of hundreds of Palestinians before handing them over to the Red Cross.

In the central city of Nuseirat, three Israeli youths—Omer Vankert and Omer Shem Tov—were placed into Red Cross vehicles, which then departed for Israel.

Earlier in the day, two other hostages were released in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The two hostages, Tal Shoham (40) and Avera Mengistu (39), were brought onto a stage by masked and armed Hamas fighters before being placed into a Red Cross ambulance. The ambulance then proceeded toward a nearby crossing into Israel. The sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed (36), is also scheduled to be released on Saturday.

The exchange of hostages and prisoners between Israel and Hamas comes at a time of controversy. Hamas had previously handed over the body of an unidentified Palestinian woman instead of Shiri Bibas, the mother of two kidnapped children. While Hamas returned the bodies of the two boys, the woman’s body was not that of Shiri Bibas, leading to outrage among Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “cruel and malicious violation” of the agreement and vowed revenge. Meanwhile, Hamas stated that it was a mistake. The six hostages being released on Saturday are the last living individuals to be freed under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Ethiopian-Israeli Mengistu was taken captive in Gaza in 2014. His family sang songs upon his release. Shoham, from the northern Israeli village of Male Tzvia, had gone to Kibbutz Be’eri to visit his wife’s family when Hamas militants attacked on October 7, 2023. (AP)