Israel delayed the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners it had pledged to free on Saturday, shortly after Hamas handed over six Israeli hostages, raising tensions in the already shaky cease-fire between them.
For Israelis, the weekend had started with emotional homecomings as they watched the captives returning after being held by Hamas in Gaza. But as of Saturday evening, Palestinians expressed frustration as they continued to wait for Israel to uphold its end of the exchange.
Israel has occasionally delayed freeing prisoners at other points during the cease-fire to protest Hamas’s conduct during the exchanges. Earlier this week, Hamas delivered what it initially said were the remains of Shiri Bibas, an Israeli hostage, alongside the bodies of three other hostages, including her two children.
But Israel found that the corpse returned by Hamas was not that of Ms. Bibas, setting off an uproar in Israel. The abduction and killing of Ms. Bibas and her children — Ariel, 4, and Kfir, about 9 months old — during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack had already been seared into Israel’s psyche, and Israel determined on Friday that the children’s captors had killed them.
Hamas acknowledged a possible mix-up or mistake with the remains of Ms. Bibas, then delivered the correct body a day later, as Israeli officials vowed to respond to what they called a severe breach of the cease-fire.
The mood in Israel swung on Saturday between grief over the hostages who came home dead and joy for the returning survivors. Hamas handed over five Jewish Israeli hostages in two ceremonies and quietly transferred a sixth hostage, an Arab citizen of Israel, at a separate location without large crowds of onlookers.
The first two freed hostages, Avera Mengistu and Tal Shoham, were turned over to Red Cross officials in the southern city of Rafah. Three more were handed over in Nuseirat, in central Gaza: Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen. The three were dressed in khaki outfits resembling military uniforms, though none were in military service when they were abducted.
Like previous Hamas-run hostage releases, the two handover ceremonies were highly orchestrated, with masked gunmen escorting hostages onto stages where they displayed release certificates. Mr. Shem Tov was directed by the militants to kiss the head of his captor, his father later told Israel’s public broadcaster.
The sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed was turned over in Gaza City without any fanfare or a live broadcast. Mr. al-Sayed and Mr. Mengistu, both of whom suffered from mental health issues, have been held hostage by Hamas for around a decade, while the rest were taken in the October 2023 attack. All six were returned to Israeli territory.
In exchange, Israel was expected to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners — the largest group of detainees freed at once since the cease-fire began in late January. They were to include at least 50 Palestinians serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis.
Israel and Hamas are now nearing the end of the first phase of the six-week truce, which is set to expire in early March. But the two sides have failed to reach an agreement on the next stage of the truce, raising fears that the fighting could soon resume.
Under the deal, Hamas committed in the first stage to freeing at least 25 living Israeli hostages and the remains of eight more in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel. The handover of all 25 living hostages was completed with Saturday’s releases.
The second phase would include an end to the war, a full Israeli withdrawal, and the release of the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, about 30 of whom are believed to be alive, in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners.
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting from Haifa, Israel.
Israel has decided to delay the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners until the release of more hostages is secured, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement early on Sunday.
It was not immediately clear if the prime minister’s office was referring only to four Israeli hostages believed to be dead whom the cease-fire agreement stipulates should be released next week in the final exchange of the deal’s first phase.
The Israeli government, the statement added, would also hold up freeing the Palestinian prisoners until it received a commitment that the next hostages would be released without “humiliation ceremonies.”
Hamas has been releasing hostages in performative ceremonies aimed at showing that it is still in control of Gaza. Many Israeli officials have condemned the way Hamas has brought hostages into crowds before releasing them.
The gate of Israeli Ofer Prison could be seen swinging open on live TV, signaling the start of a familiar but highly anticipated moment of the next group of Palestinian prisoners being released after a several-hour delay. Israeli military vehicles rumbled into motion, as did a Red Cross-escorted bus carrying Palestinian prisoners on its way to their families, who had been waiting since dawn in Ramallah.
Relatives and friends of Eliya Cohen react as they watch the TV broadcast of his release in Tel Aviv on Saturday.Credit...Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press
Kobi Cohen was almost trembling with excitement on Saturday after watching Hamas release the latest group of Israeli hostages.
He had long feared the worst for his nephew, Eliya Cohen, one of the more than 250 people abducted in the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. But on Saturday, he saw him on his feet and smiling despite more than a year in captivity.
“I saw the smile on his face and I knew while they may have starved him, they didn’t defeat him in his soul,” said Mr. Cohen, standing on his apartment balcony in the city of Modiin.
But then, his voice dropping almost to a whisper, he began mulling aloud: What would be the fate of the remaining hostages and their families, the ones not included this first phase of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas?
As the last surviving hostages set to be freed in this stage of the truce were released, many Israelis felt buffeted by a torrent of conflicting emotions: national euphoria over the six who came back on Saturday, grief for the four who came home dead this week, and uncertainty over the future of the truce, which is set to expire in early March.
Despite chilly winter rain, hundreds of supporters rallied in Tel Aviv to show solidarity with the returning captives, some carrying photographs of the six released men. Others arrived at hospitals to welcome them back with cheers.
Relatives of Eliya Cohen, 27, had gathered in Modiin on Saturday morning to watch his release on television. When he finally appeared — in between two Hamas militants — the room burst into whoops.
“Eliya’s coming back! Eliya’s coming back!” they chanted, popping champagne and embracing one another.
Mr. Cohen and his girlfriend, Ziv Abud, had attended the Nova music festival near the Gaza border the night before the Hamas attack.
The following morning, the rave became a massacre: More than 300 people were killed and dozens more taken hostage. Mr. Cohen and Ms. Abud fled with others to a roadside bomb shelter as rockets from Gaza soared overhead. Palestinian assailants then attacked the site, hurling grenades into the tiny shelter and firing machine guns into the crowd, according to survivors.
Ms. Abud, one of the few survivors, hid for hours beneath dead bodies. Both her nephew and his girlfriend were among those killed. Mr. Cohen was taken to Gaza and spent the past year not knowing whether she was alive or dead, according to his family.
“The moment we’re most waiting for is to see them reunite,” said his cousin, Koren Cohen, 22.
In footage released by the Israeli government, Omer Shem Tov, another of the newly freed hostages, was seen hugging his parents.
“You have no idea how much I dreamed about you,” he said. His mother responded through tears: “Us too, us too.”
On Thursday, Hamas turned over four bodies, which included Oded Lifshitz, 83; and the two young Bibas children, parading coffins containing their remains in a highly performative ceremony that drew international condemnation.
The group also handed over what it initially said was their mother, Shiri Bibas, 32, as well.
Israeli forensic analysts later determined the remains did not belong to her, sparking fury across the country. Hamas ultimately returned Ms. Bibas’s corpse late on Friday night, and Israel confirmed the remains were hers.
Relatives of the newly released hostages expressed their condolences to the Bibas family, whose agony has been seared in Israel’s national psyche.
While the families of the six captives were welcoming them home, Mr. Lifshitz’s relatives were preparing for a long-delayed funeral next week. His wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, was also abducted before being released by Hamas just a few weeks into the war.
Dekel Lifshitz, one of their grandchildren, said the family had long feared he was already dead. The return of his body for burial had provided him “some degree of closure, an understanding that this is now in the past, and the need to look forward,” he said.
“All we can do now is to continue to push to continue with the rest of the deal, until all the hostages come back,” he added.
Palestinian families waiting for Israel to free their loved ones expressed frustration upon hearing news reports that the Israeli government was delaying their release.
“These final hours are the hardest,” said Adeeb Saifi, the father of a Palestinian prisoner who was set to be released. “They bring together all contradictions — hardship and relief, hope and pain, love and hatred.”
Israel has told Palestinian officials that it is delaying its release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners until at least 6:30 p.m. local time, according to Amani Sarahneh, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, one of the main Palestinian prisoner advocate groups. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Eman Nafe, the wife of Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouti, who has spent 44 years in an Israeli jail, points at a picture of her husband.Credit...Ismael Khader/Reuters
Israel on Saturday was expected to release the largest group of Palestinian prisoners in a single day since the start of the cease-fire with Hamas last month.
In total, 620 prisoners were supposed to be exchanged for six Israeli hostages released on Saturday and the remains of four Israelis handed over this week, according to lists distributed by Palestinian officials.
The completion of the exchange would indicate that both sides were still implementing the fragile cease-fire, at least for now, even as uncertainty loomed large over how long it will hold. But as of Saturday evening, it was not clear whether Israel still intended to release Palestinian prisoners as planned, as the Israeli government delayed handing them over to the Red Cross without providing a clear explanation.
The holdup caused frustration for families waiting for their arrival.
“These final hours are the hardest,” said Adeeb Saifi, the father of a Palestinian prisoner who was set to be released. “They bring together all contradictions — hardship and relief, hope and pain, love and hatred.”
Mr. Saifi said that his son, Ahmad, was accused of participating in a shooting attack targeting Israeli soldiers in 2009. Court records documenting a conviction and prison sentence could not immediately be located.
Of those who were set to be freed on Saturday, 445 men, 23 minors and one woman were all arrested after the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on southern Israel, the lists showed. In addition, 151 Palestinians who have been imprisoned for years, including some convicted of participating in deadly attacks against Israelis, were scheduled to be released.
For many Israelis, some of the Palestinian prisoners released since the beginning of the cease-fire are terrorists who were involved in brutal acts. For many Palestinians, those prisoners are heroes who sacrificed themselves while fighting Israeli rule.
Palestinian prisoner rights advocates have also argued that Israel has subjected Palestinians to an unfair military justice system, and in some cases, imprisoned them without charge.
One of the most prominent prisoners who was expected to be released on Saturday is Nael Barghouti, who has served more than four decades in Israeli prisons. He was convicted of involvement in killing an Israeli man, Mordechai Yakoel, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 1978.
Mr. Barghouti was released in a 2011 deal that freed some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Israel rearrested him in 2014.
While Israelis celebrated the release of hostages and Palestinians anticipated the release of loved ones, questions about the future of the cease-fire loomed.
It was still not clear what negotiations have started over the second phase of the cease-fire — which calls for a permanent end to the fighting, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of more hostages and prisoners.
The two sides were to start talks over details on the next phase more than two weeks ago.
Hamas has accused Israel of delaying the start of the phase two discussions, while Israeli officials have suggested they were not in a rush to begin them.
Al Jazeera, the Qatari-funded TV channel, broadcast video of a man who appeared to be Hisham al-Sayed walking toward a Red Cross vehicle. Al-Sayed, who was held hostage in Gaza for nearly 10 years, is an Arab citizen of Israel.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas handed over five Jewish Israeli hostages to the Red Cross. Those transfers took place before hundreds of people in performative ceremonies aimed to show that the militant group was still in control of Gaza. There was no such ceremony for al-Sayed.
Hisham al-Sayed’s family said in a statement that they were “moved by Hisham’s return home,” adding, “After nearly a decade of fighting for Hisham’s return, the long-awaited moment has arrived.” Al-Sayed crossed into Gaza in April 2015 and was captured by Hamas.
Al-Sayed, 37, suffered from schizophrenia, which likely led him to enter Gaza without realizing the danger, according to his family. Hamas held him incommunicado for years before releasing a proof-of-life video in 2022 that showed him lying in a bed with an oxygen mask on his face, apparently in poor health. Human Rights Watch called Hamas’s treatment of him and Avera Mengistu, another Israeli captive with mental health issues, “cruel and indefensible.”
Hisham al-Sayed, the last hostage to be freed in today’s exchange with Hamas, has crossed into Israel accompanied by Israeli forces, the military said in a statement. His release concludes one part of the swap; Israel is now expected to begin releasing more than 600 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
In a video released by the Israeli government, Omer Shem Tov, one of the hostages freed today, is seen reuniting with his parents and telling them, “You have no idea how much I dreamed about you.”
It was a day of emotional homecomings for Israelis as six hostages were returned home from Hamas. But Israel delayed the handover of more than 600 Palestinians it was expected to free in the exchange.CreditCredit...Saher Alghorra for The New York Times
Hamas released six more hostages on Saturday as part of its cease-fire deal with Israel, the last living captives to be freed under the current truce in Gaza.
As part of the cease-fire agreement, Hamas committed to releasing at least 33 of the nearly 100 captives remaining in Gaza, a number of whom are believed to be dead, in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel and a partial Israeli withdrawal. Both sides are set to negotiate terms to extend the truce, but an agreement appears remote.
Two of the captives freed on Saturday had been in Hamas’s hands for about 10 years. Four others were taken during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which prompted the Gaza war.
Omer Wenkert
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A poster of Omer Wenkert at the site of the festival in southern Israel where he was abducted.Credit...Amir Cohen/Reuters
Omer Wenkert, 23, was kidnapped during the Oct. 7 assault as Palestinian militants attacked a music festival, the Tribe of Nova, being held near the Gaza border. Videos and photographs from the time of the attack show him being restrained, stripped to his underwear and surrounded by armed men in the back of a truck as he was taken away to Gaza.
He was in touch with his family on the morning of the attack and had said that he was afraid. Relatives later saw video of his abduction. His grandmother, Tsili Wenkert, a Holocaust survivor who said that she had been saved by the Soviet Army, appealed to Russian officials for help in securing her grandson’s release.
Mr. Wenkert managed a restaurant in central Israel and was supposed to start a restaurant management course in college. His father, Shai Wenkert, pleaded for his freedom near Mr. Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks.
In a speech to a group of other relatives of hostages and their supporters, he said: “A whole year in which time has stopped. I’m still on the same day.”
Eliya Cohen
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A handout photo of Eliya Cohen.Credit...Bring Them Home Now
Eliya Cohen, who was 27 when he was captured, had also been at the Nova music festival. He took cover with other festival attendees when militants threw grenades into their shelter and stormed it, ordering Mr. Cohen and two other men out with them, according to his girlfriend, Ziv Abud from Tel Aviv, one of the bunker’s few survivors.
Ms. Abud had gone to the festival with Mr. Cohen, her nephew and her nephew’s girlfriend. Of the four, she was the only one to make it home. Mr. Cohen was shot in the leg during the raid, she said, and she hid with him under a pile of dead bodies until she felt him pulled away from her.
Mr. Cohen’s mother, Sigalit Cohen, told The Guardian in December 2023 that she had quit her job as an accountant to lobby for the release of the captives. Near the first anniversary of the war and hostage crisis, she wrote in an editorial addressing Israelis: “Have we learned anything from that cursed day? Have we taken it upon ourselves to be better?”
Hisham al-Sayed
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A handout photograph of Hisham al-Sayed.Credit...Bring Them Home Now
Hisham al-Sayed is a member of Israel’s Arab Bedouin minority from the town of Hura. He is one of two Israeli hostages, along with Hadar Goldin, who were captured by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip many years before the Oct. 7 raids.
Mr. al-Sayed entered Gaza in 2015 and was not seen again until 2022, when Hamas released a video purporting to show him lying in a bed looking dazed and wearing an oxygen mask. Mr. al-Sayed has schizophrenia, according to his family, and had attempted to enter Gaza before. Hamas accused Mr. al-Sayed of being an Israeli soldier and was thought to be holding him to pressure Israel to release Palestinian prisoners.
In 2017, a Human Rights Watch investigation concluded that Mr. al-Sayed was not affiliated with the Israeli military or government. After Hamas captured hundreds of hostages in the Oct. 7 assault, the families of captives who had been lobbying for their relatives’ release for years joined forces with relatives of the newer hostages.
Mr. al-Sayed’s father, Shaban al-Sayed, said that the family was awaiting his son’s return with deep anxiety.
“We don’t know in what condition he’ll return,” he said. “We’re waiting for him — and when we see him, we’ll know how much we have to celebrate.”
Avera Mengistu
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A cutout poster of Avera Mengistu at a site in Tel Aviv.Credit...Hannah Mckay/Reuters
Mr. Mengistu, now 38, is the longest-held living Israeli hostage in Gaza. In 2014, nearly two weeks after a cease-fire ended a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, Mr. Mengistu was seen in security camera footage walking along the beach before crossing a fence dividing Israel from Gaza.
Born in Ethiopia, Mr. Mengistu immigrated to Israel with his family when he was 5 and lived in the coastal city of Ashkelon, some 10 miles north of Gaza. His older brother told Israeli media that Mr. Mengistu had been deeply affected by the death of another sibling and faced serious mental health issues.
Mr. Mengistu was apparently last seen in a video released by Hamas in January 2023, though the footage could not be independently verified. As with Mr. al-Sayed, Human Rights Watch later assessed that he was a civilian with a history of mental health problems.
Omer Shem Tov
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A sign calling for the release of Omer Shem Tov in Tel Aviv.Credit...Leon Neal/Getty Images
Omer Shem Tov was 20 when he was abducted alongside two friends at the Nova music festival. His friends — Maya Regev and her brother, Itay Regev — were released during a weeklong truce between Israel and Hamas in November 2023.
In December 2023, after their release, the Regevs appeared in a video together wearing T-shirts that bore the face of Mr. Shem Tov, pleading for his return. “Every day there is like hell,” Ms. Regev said from a wheelchair, having undergone surgeries for a gunshot wound in her leg.
“I have a friend named Omer, and I really, really miss him,” Itay said. “I know what he is going through in there, and I know how frightening it is.”
Mr. Shem Tov’s older brother, Amit Shem Tov, expressed dismay after the end of the last truce. “The end of the cease-fire is the worst thing that could have happened because it seriously delays the release of my brother,” he said.
Tal Shoham
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A handout photograph of Tal Shoham.Credit...Bring Them Home Now
Tal Shoham was 38 when he was captured from Kibbutz Be’eri. His wife, Adi Shoham, and their son and daughter, ages 8 and 3 at the time, were freed in the first cease-fire deal.
Early last year, Mr. Shoham’s father, Gilad Korngold, was among a group of relatives of hostages who burst into an Israeli Parliament meeting to demand action on the abductees.
“The danger is increasing every day that passes,” Mr. Korngold said in an interview afterward. “Israel and the relevant countries in the region need to sit at the table — without eating or sleeping — and make this terrible situation end.”
On the first anniversary of the attack, Mr. Shoham’s family was still waiting. His mother, Nitza Korngold, like other Israelis frustrated with the government’s lack of progress on a hostage release agreement, boycotted the official ceremony and attended an alternative commemoration.
“My dear Tal, if you can see or hear me, we all miss you so much,” she said. “We are doing everything to bring you and all the hostages home soon. We will not give up on you.”
The Israeli military and internal security service said in a joint statement that the sixth and last hostage set to be released today was in the hands of the Red Cross and would soon be turned over to Israeli forces in Gaza. That hostage is believed to be Hisham al-Sayed.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was prepared to receive a sixth hostage who was due to be transferred to the Red Cross soon. The last hostage that Hamas was set to release today is Hisham al-Sayed, an Israeli citizen from a Bedouin town in Israel’s southern Negev desert who crossed into Gaza of his own accord in April 2015 and has been held there since. He is expected to be handed over without a public ceremony.
Kobi Cohen, the uncle of the released hostage Eliya Cohen, stood on the balcony of his home in Modiin, Israel, his forehead resting on his arm as he murmured a prayer of thanksgiving. The family had been even more worried about their nephew’s health after Eli Sharabi, another captive held with him in Hamas’s underground tunnel network, described dire conditions there after his return in early February. But today, Kobi Cohen said, “I saw the smile on his face and I knew while they may have starved him, they didn’t beat him in his soul.”
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad
Reporting from Haifa, Israel
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Information Office released information about the 620 Palestinian prisoners and detainees who are expected to be freed today in exchange for the Israeli hostages. The group includes 50 prisoners serving life sentences, 60 with long-term sentences, 41 who were re-arrested after being released in a large exchange of prisoners for an Israeli soldier in 2011, and 445 people from Gaza who were detained without trial by Israel after Oct. 7, 2023.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the latest hostages to be released — Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert — had arrived at an initial reception point in southern Israel.
Eliya Cohen, who was just released, was seized from a roadside bomb shelter near the Nova music festival, where he and about 30 other people packed in to take cover from rocket fire from Gaza. Assailants threw grenades into the tiny shelter and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, according to survivors. Cohen’s partner, Ziv Abud, one of the few survivors of that shelter, hid for hours beneath dead bodies.
The Israeli military confirmed in a statement that the three freed hostages were being accompanied by its special forces en route to Israeli territory.
Omer Shem Tov’s father, Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli television that the family’s mission of getting Omer released from captivity in Gaza was complete “after 505 days of worry, fear and longing.”
In Modiin, Israel, the relatives of Eliya Cohen embraced and yelled with joy at the sight of him after more than a year in captivity. “He’s smiling!” says one of them, relieved. They had feared his condition would be far worse.
Three hostages are being led by masked gunmen out of cars to the stage in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, for the handover ceremony. They appear to be Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; and Omer Wenkert, 23. All three look thin and pale and are dressed in khaki uniforms to suggest they are soldiers, though none were in military service when they were captured.
All three were taken hostage while fleeing the Nova music festival near the Gaza border during the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023. Gunmen encircled the festival site and ambushed people trying to escape though fields and along the road. More than 380 of the festival attendees were killed and dozens were abducted to Gaza. Cohen, Shem Tov and Wenkert are said to all suffer from illnesses that allowed them to be prioritized for release in this first phase of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
The handover of some of the remaining Israeli hostages appears imminent. White vans accompanied by Hamas fighters have arrived at the handover site in central Gaza. Live video shows that a large crowd has gathered, and flags associated with both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group, are visible.
Red Cross vehicles have reached the area in central Gaza where more hostages are to be handed over, video from the scene shows. The vehicles appear to be surrounded by a crowd but are slowly making their way forward.
The Israeli military confirmed in a statement that the two released hostages, Avera Mengistu and Tal Shoham, have arrived in Israel. They are at a reception point in southern Israel, where they will undergo an initial medical assessment and be reunited with close family members, the military said.
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