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Hamas Frees Six Hostages in Gaza in Exchange for Palestinian Detainees
Families and supporters react as they celebrate the release of Omer Wenkert, a hostage who was held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, on the day of the release of six hostages from captivity in Gaza as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gedera, Israel February 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Rami Shlush
Hamas freed six hostages from Gaza on Saturday, the last living Israeli captives slated for release under the first phase of a fragile ceasefire accord, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, all seized from the site of the Nova music festival in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, were handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat, central Gaza, to be transported to Israeli forces.
Dozens of militants stood guard in a crowd that had gathered to watch the handover, as masked Hamas men armed with automatic rifles stood on each side of the three men, who appeared thin and pale, as they were made to wave from the stage.
Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were earlier released in Rafah in southern Gaza.
The Hamas-directed releases, which have included public ceremonies in which captives are taken on stage and some made to speak, have faced mounting criticism, including from the United Nations, which denounced the “parading of hostages.”
Hamas rejected the criticism on Saturday, describing the events as a solemn show of Palestinian unity. It later handed over a sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, to the Red Cross in Gaza City with no public ceremony.
Al-Sayed and Mengistu have been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza of their own accord around a decade ago. Shoham was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri along with his wife and two children, who were freed in a brief truce in November 2023.
The six are the last living hostages from a group of 33 due to be freed in the first stage of the three-phase ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that took effect on January 19. Sixty-three more captives, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, remain in Gaza.
Shem Tov embraced his parents tightly, laughing and crying, “How I dreamt of this,” he said, in a video distributed by the Israeli military.
Shoham smiled, waved and gave a thumbs up to his friends who had gathered outside the hospital where he was taken.
“We’ve been waiting for Tal every day since October 7th,” said Yael Avner, 50, one of Shoham’s friends. “It’s a great relief just to see him there, himself just coming back home.”
Hundreds of Israelis gathered in the rain in what has become known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Some lit candles under photos of the Bibas family, whose bodies were returned this week.
In return for the hostages, Israel is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in its jails.
They will include 445 Gazans rounded up by Israeli forces during the war, as well as dozens of convicts serving lengthy or life terms for attacks that killed dozens of Israelis in the Palestinian uprising two decades ago.
SLAIN IN CAPTIVITY
The fragile truce in the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists had been threatened by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday as that of Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped with her two young sons and her husband in the Hamas 2023 attack.
However, late on Friday, Hamas handed over another body, which her family said had been confirmed to be hers.
“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” her family said in a statement, which said she had been identified by Israel’s Institute of Forensic Medicine.
The Bibas family has been an emblem of the trauma suffered by Israel on that day. Her husband Yarden, seized and held separately from his family, was freed on February 1.
The Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel showed both had been killed deliberately by their captors, “in cold blood.”
Israel’s Army Radio, citing the forensic conclusions, said Bibas was likely slain with her children.
Hamas says the Bibas family was killed by an Israeli airstrike. A group called the Mujahideen Brigades said it was holding the family, which was confirmed by the Israeli military.
The ceasefire has brought a pause in the fighting, but prospects of a definitive end to the war remain unclear. Hamas has been at pains to demonstrate that it remains in control in Gaza despite heavy losses in the war.
The terrorist group triggered the conflict by its attack on Israeli communities that killed 1,200 and took 251 hostages.
Both sides have said they intend to start talks on a second stage, which mediators say aims to agree the return of all remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The post Hamas Frees Six Hostages in Gaza in Exchange for Palestinian Detainees first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.