Gaza [Palestine], February 23: Hamas has released six Israeli captives from Gaza ahead of the release of hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons in the final swap under the first phase of the ceasefire between the Palestinian group and Israel.
The first two captives, Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu, were handed over to the Red Cross in Rafah in southern Gaza on Saturday after they were led onto a stage by armed Hamas fighters.
Three more captives - Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert and Omer Shem Tov - were later released to Red Cross officials in Nuseirat in central Gazain a separate ceremony.
Hisham al-Sayed, was the last captive to be handed over to the Red Cross on Saturday. The 37-year-old Bedouin Israeli was taken captive when he entered Gaza in April 2015.
The six are the last from a group of 33 to be freed in the first stage of the ceasefire, which took effect on January 19.
Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Nuseirat, said a large crowd has gathered to witness the release of the three captives.
"We see reinforcements from the Qassam Brigades in order to maintain order and safety of the process," he reported, referring to Hamas's armed wing. "Compared with past handovers, the scene here at Nuseirat looks more organised."
Al Jazeera correspondent said that Hamas did not give any explanation why there was a last-minute change of the plan to release four captives in Nuseirat.
Speaking to Al Jazeera before the release, Professor Sami al-Arian from Istanbul Zaim University said the elaborate staging of the handover is a way for Hamas to signal it is responsible stakeholders by "showing the whole world that they were trying to keep them [the captives] alive, keep them safe".
Al-Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim, and Mengistu, an Ethiopian Jew, had been held in Gaza for about a decade after they entered the territory individually.
"Our family has endured 10 years and five months of unimaginable suffering," Mengistu's family said in a statement. Al-Sayed's family members called it "a long-awaited moment" and said they were "moved".
Shoham's relatives wept and embraced as they watched his handover in Rafah, video released by Israel's government showed.
Later on Saturday, Israel was expected to release 602 Palestinians held in its jails. It includes 445 people detained by Israeli forces during its war on Gaza as well as dozens serving lengthy or life terms, according to Hamas.
The fragile ceasefire had been threatened with derailment by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday as that of Shiri Bibas, who was taken captive with her two young sons and husband in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
Late on Friday, Hamas handed over Bibas's body, which her family said had been confirmed to be hers. The Palestinian armed-group has long said an Israeli air strike killed Shiri Bibas and her infant sons, Kfir and Ariel, early in the war.
"The false allegations that the criminal [Israeli] occupation is disseminating about the death of the Bibas children at the hands of their captors are merely baseless lies and fabrications," Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
Israel's military said Hamas fighters killed the children "with their bare hands" weeks after their kidnapping on October 7, 2023.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office, said Prime Minister Netanyahu "bears full responsibility for killing her and her children".
Source: Qatar Tribune
