Hamas hands over first two of six hostages to be freed in latest exchange
The two hostages – Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38 – were put into Red Cross ambulances after being brought out onto a stage by Hamas fighters.
Hamas handed over to the Red Cross the first two of six Israeli hostages due to be freed on Saturday under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
The two hostages – Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38 – were put into Red Cross ambulances after being brought out onto a stage by masked and armed Hamas fighters in front of a crowd in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The ambulances then headed toward a nearby crossing into Israel.
Mr Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli, had been held in Gaza since entering on his own in 2014. Watching the handover on Israeli media, his family broke out into a Hebrew song, Here Is The Light, as they saw him for the first time for more than a decade.
Mr Shoham, who also holds Austrian citizenship and is from the northern Israeli village of Ma’ale Tzviya, was visiting his wife’s family in Kibbutz Be’eri when Hamas militants stormed into the community during the October 7 2023 attacks.
Mr Shoham’s family told Israeli media they were “starting to breathe again” after seeing him on the stage.
Mr Shoham’s wife, two young children, and three other relatives who had been abducted with him were freed in a November 2023 exchange.
“This is an unforgettable moment, where all emotions are rapidly mixing together. Our Tal is with us,” Mr Shoham’s family said in a statement, calling for a deal the be reached for the release of all those still captive.
“There is a window of opportunity; we must not miss it.”
The others to be freed include Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; and Omer Wenkert, 23. All three were abducted from a music festival during the October 7 2023 attack.
Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who also crossed into Gaza on his own several years ago, is also to be returned to Israel as part of the deal.
More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange, the Palestinian prisoners media office said on Friday.
The prisoners set for release include 50 serving life sentences, 60 with long sentences, 47 who were released under a previous hostage-for-prisoner exchange and 445 prisoners from Gaza arrested since the war began.
Hamas has said it will also release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. If that plan is carried out, Hamas would retain about 60 hostages, about half of whom are believed to be alive.
Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, says he is committed to destroying Hamas’s military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
Later on Saturday, Red Cross vehicles arrived for a further hostage release in the central Gaza town of Nuseirat.
A crowd of hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the town in preparation for the handover.
