Hamas released six Israeli hostages from Gaza on Saturday, delivering the last living captives set to be freed in the first phase of a fragile cease-fire. That truce was already jolted this week when the militant group initially returned remains purportedly of an Israeli hostage that testing revealed to be someone else.
Early Sunday, Israel announced that it would continue to delay the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners whom it had pledged to free on Saturday, demanding that Hamas first release more captives from Gaza and commit to releasing them without “humiliation ceremonies.” Hamas has been releasing hostages in performative ceremonies aimed at showing that it is still in control of Gaza, which many Israeli officials have condemned.
The announcement, delivered in a statement from the prime minister’s office hours after the prisoner release had already been delayed without explanation, added tension to the shaky cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that is set to expire next week.
On Thursday, Hamas had returned four bodies it said were those of hostages who had died in captivity, among them Shiri Bibas, an Israeli women who had been abducted with her two young children during the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, that began the war. Forensic testing by Israel determined that the body was not Ms. Bibas, however.
Late Friday, Hamas transferred another body, which Israeli officials confirmed early Saturday as Ms. Bibas. Her kidnapping and death with her children have become a symbol of Israeli grief.
The delivery of the wrong remains set off an uproar in Israel. Additionally, Israeli authorities, rejecting Hamas’s assertions that Ms. Bibas’s children were killed in Israeli airstrikes, said that their captors had killed them “with their bare hands.” The episode raised doubts about the next steps of the cease-fire agreement, including whether Saturday’s exchange would proceed as planned.
In return for the release of the six living hostages and the bodies of four dead captives, Israel was expected on Saturday to release 620 Palestinian prisoners, the largest group of detainees to be released since the cease-fire in Gaza began last month. That did not occur.
The hostage transfer from Hamas had initially seemed set to keep the deal between the two sides on track after a turbulent week. Among Israelis, emotions have swung between joy and grief, as the families of the hostages being released offered their condolences to the Bibas family and other relatives whose loved ones were killed.
Palestinian families waiting for their relatives to be freed also expressed conflicting emotions. “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.”
The long-term future of the agreement remains unclear. The six-week truce, which began in late January, is set to expire in early March unless both Israel and Hamas agree to an extension. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement on the next stage of the cease-fire, raising fears that the fighting could soon begin anew.
Hamas returned the six hostages on Saturday in two highly orchestrated public ceremonies and a third transfer that was not televised. The first two to be freed, Avera Mengistu and Tal Shoham, were turned over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Israeli military said the two men had crossed into Israel and would receive medical assessments.
Mr. Mengistu, 38, had been the longest-held living Israeli hostage in Gaza. An Israeli of Ethiopian descent, he crossed into Gaza in 2014 and was taken hostage by Hamas, which claimed he was a soldier, though he had never served in the military.
Mr. Shoham, along with several family members, including his wife and two children, was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri, where more people were killed in the Oct. 7 attack than in any other Israeli community. His wife, son and daughter were freed during a cease-fire in November 2023, and in a statement after his release on Saturday, his family said that “all emotions are rapidly mixing together.”
Three other hostages were handed over in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, and delivered to the Israeli military: Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen. All three were kidnapped while trying to flee a music festival near the border with Gaza, and are said to suffer from illnesses that allowed them to be prioritized for release.
During the handover ceremony, the hostages appeared thin and pale. They were dressed in khaki uniforms, though none were in military service when they were taken hostage.
In a video released by the Israeli government, Mr. Shem Tov, who was 20 when he was abducted, can be seen reuniting with his parents and telling them, “You have no idea how much I dreamed about you.”
In both ceremonies, masked gunmen escorted hostages onto stages and displayed release certificates — theatrical handovers that have become typical of Hamas’s hostage releases in this cease-fire, as the militant group aims to demonstrate that it is still in control of Gaza.
Late Saturday, Hamas published a propaganda video on social media that appeared designed to instill fear for the safety of the hostages still alive in Gaza. The video shows that the militant group brought two additional captives to a transfer ceremony on Saturday, where they were forced to watch from a van and beg for their own release.
Rights groups and international law experts say that a hostage video is, by definition, made under duress, and the statements in it are usually coerced. Israeli officials have called past Hamas videos a form of “psychological warfare,” and experts say their production can constitute a war crime.
The scenes during the transfers themselves on Saturday were more subdued than during some of the previous, more chaotic exchanges.
The sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, 37, was turned over in Gaza City in a more private transfer. An Israeli citizen from a Bedouin town in the southern Negev desert, Mr. al-Sayed crossed into Gaza of his own accord in April 2015 and was taken hostage by Hamas.
Al Jazeera, the Qatari-funded TV channel, broadcast video of a man who appeared to be Mr. al-Sayed walking toward a Red Cross vehicle, and the Israeli military later released footage of him being transferred into the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza. Hamas held Mr. al-Sayed incommunicado for years before releasing a proof-of-life video in 2022, showing him lying in a bed with an oxygen mask on his face, apparently in poor health.
His family said in a statement that they were “moved by Hisham’s return home,” adding, “the long-awaited moment has arrived.”
Under the cease-fire agreement, Hamas committed 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.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza had eagerly awaited the return of their loved ones. 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, according to lists distributed by Palestinian officials. 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.
Whether the cease-fire extends into a second phase is still uncertain. The two sides were set to start talks over details on the next stage more than two weeks ago, but it is not clear if serious negotiations have started.
