Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners After Six Gaza Hostages Freed

JERUSALEM, Feb 23, 2025 (BSS/AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that the release of Palestinian prisoners under the Gaza ceasefire deal would be postponed until Hamas halts its “humiliating ceremonies” during the release of Israeli hostages.

Since the ceasefire began on January 19, Hamas has released 25 Israeli hostages, staging highly organized handovers. Masked militants have paraded the captives on stage, forcing them to wave at Gazans watching the event.

In the latest scheduled prisoner-hostage swap on Saturday, Hamas released six Israeli captives while Israel delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas condemned the delay as a “blatant violation” of the truce agreement.

Israel had initially planned to release over 600 Palestinian prisoners.

“In light of Hamas’ repeated violations — including disgraceful ceremonies dishonoring our hostages and the cynical exploitation of hostages for propaganda purposes — we have decided to delay the release of prisoners until the next hostages are freed, without these humiliating ceremonies,” said Netanyahu’s office in a statement.

From Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Hamas would face “destruction” if it failed to release all remaining hostages.

Families in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip had been waiting for hours on Saturday for the release of their loved ones in exchange for the six Israelis returned home.

“Waiting is very difficult,” said Shireen al-Hamamreh, whose brother was due for release. “We are patient, and we will remain stronger than the occupier, God willing,” she told AFP in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A ‘Blatant Violation’

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group had said Israel was expected to free 620 inmates on Saturday, most of whom were Gazans taken into custody during the war.

Before Netanyahu’s announcement, Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanou called Israel’s failure to release prisoners on time a “blatant violation” of the agreement. He urged truce mediators to pressure Israel to implement the provisions without delay or obstruction.

The delay comes after an emotional period in Israel, where the remains of hostage Shiri Bibas were identified following the initial handover of a different body. Netanyahu vowed that Hamas would “pay the full price” for what he called a violation of the truce deal regarding Bibas’s return.

Bibas and her two young sons, among the dozens taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, had become symbols of the hardships faced by Israeli hostages. Forensics experts confirmed no signs of injuries caused by a bombing, despite Hamas’s claim that the family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

‘Coming Back Home’

The six Israelis released on Saturday were the last group of living hostages to be freed under the first phase of the truce deal, which has allowed for the release of 30 captives thus far. The deal is set to expire in early March, and talks for the second phase, aimed at a permanent end to the war, have yet to begin.

At a ceremony in Nuseirat, central Gaza, Israeli captives Eliya Cohen (27), Omer Shem Tov (22), and Israeli-Argentine Omer Wenkert (23) waved from a stage flanked by masked Hamas militants before being handed over to the Red Cross. “I saw the look on his face, he’s calm, he knows he’s coming back home… He’s a real hero,” said Wenkert’s friend, Rory Grosz.

In Rafah, southern Gaza, militants handed over Tal Shoham (40) and Avera Mengistu (38), who appeared dazed. A sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed (37), was later released privately and returned to Israel.

Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim, and Mengistu, an Ethiopian Jew, had been held in Gaza for about a decade after entering the territory individually. Sayed’s family called his release a “long-awaited moment.”

‘Mix-up’

Earlier in the week, a “mix-up” of bodies caused anger in Israel after it was found that Shiri Bibas’s remains were not among the four bodies returned. Hamas later admitted to the mix-up and handed over additional human remains, which the Bibas family confirmed were Shiri’s. The family said, “She was murdered in captivity and has now returned home… to rest.”

Israeli military officials said their analysis indicated that Hamas militants killed Bibas’s children, Ariel and Kfir, “with their bare hands” in November 2023. Hamas dismissed the accusation as “baseless lies.”

Of the 251 people taken hostage during the October 2023 attack, 62 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military claims are dead. The Hamas attack led to 1,215 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, while Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has resulted in at least 48,319 deaths, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry and the United Nations.