Israel announced Sunday it is delaying its release of 602 Palestinian prisoners scheduled for Feb. 22, the same day that Hamas released six more Israeli hostages in “humiliating” conditions.
The exchange was the last with Israeli hostages as part of the first phase of the fragile cease-fire deal.
Netanyahu responded to the return of the wrong body with a video statement, promising consequences for the violation.
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages—both living and dead—and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he said.
Bibas’s body was returned the next day on Feb. 21. It was announced Saturday morning, after a positive identification, that Bibas was also murdered in Gaza while being held captive with her two young sons.
The sons’ bodies, which were returned and positively identified, revealed that the boys had been murdered by “bare hands” around November 2023, and that the terrorists had sought to obscure the evidence, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) said.
Hamas denied the accusations of murder, saying that Bibas and her sons were killed by an Israeli airstrike early in the war. Israel’s forensics chief said they found no evidence that Bibas died in an explosion. Neither Israel’s nor Hamas’s claims have been independently verified.
Netanyahu’s office said in its statement on Feb. 23 local time, that the Palestinian prisoner release is on indefinite hold until the “release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies.”
Dozens of masked Hamas terrorists paraded hostages before jeering crowds in Gaza on Saturday; two hostages in one location and three in another location. The sixth was released quietly later in the day. All six were released to the Red Cross for transfer to Israel.
The second group of three men had been dressed in military uniforms , although they were not having been soldiers at the time they were abducted. They had been taken into Gaza from the Nova music festival during Hamas’s terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
Two of the hostages released on Saturday had been held in Gaza for about 10 years. Hisham al-Sayed, 36, and Avera Mengistu, 39, both had a history of mental illness, according to comments from their families and a 2017 report from Human Rights Watch.
Mengistu, who was born in Ethiopia and lived in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, crossed a barbed wire fence near a beach in Gaza in September 2014, while Sayed, a Bedouin with Israeli citizenship who lived in the Negev desert, walked into Gaza from the east in April 2015.
Although Hamas at one time described them as soldiers, Human Rights Watch said neither was connected to the Israeli government or the military but that both men were accustomed to walking long distances on foot. It’s not known why they entered Gaza.
According to Israeli media, around 50 of the 602 Palestinian prisoners who had originally been scheduled to be released in exchange for the hostages are serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis.
Among them is Hamas leader Ammar Zaban, who led the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Intifada. He was to serve 27 life terms for his involvement in numerous terror attacks, including the 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market, which killed 16 people.
Another 60 are serving long sentences, 47 were re-arrested following a 2011 prisoner exchange for captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, and 445 prisoners were detained from Gaza but never charged following the Oct. 7 attack.
Hamas is due to release four more bodies this week, the remaining of the 33 hostages to be returned in phase one of the deal if negotiations hold.
