Hamas on Saturday released three Israeli hostages who appeared frail and emaciated after more than a year in captivity, as Israel began freeing dozens of Palestinian prisoners under the latest phase of a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
The three men—Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, both taken from Kibbutz Be’eri during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, and Or Levy, who was abducted from the Nova music festival—were led onto a stage by armed Hamas militants in a choreographed handover.
Televised images of the hostages, who looked visibly weak and malnourished, sparked outrage in Israel. “He looked like a skeleton,” said Michal Cohen, Ben Ami’s mother-in-law, after watching the footage of the handover, where a masked Hamas member questioned the captives while gunmen stood guard.
Hamas fighters surrounded the hostage transfer site in central Gaza as the men were handed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and transported to Israeli forces. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the apparent use of the hostages in a staged event, calling it “shocking and inhumane.”
Palestinian Prisoners Released
In exchange, Israel freed 183 Palestinian prisoners, including individuals convicted of deadly attacks, as well as 111 detainees captured in Gaza during the war.
A bus carrying 42 prisoners arrived in Ramallah, where a jubilant crowd greeted them with Palestinian flags and chants of “Allahu Akbar.” Among those released was Eyad Abu Shkaidem, sentenced to 18 life terms for orchestrating suicide bombings in retaliation for Israel’s 2004 assassinations of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi.
For Israeli hostage families, the long wait has been agonizing. The Hostage Families Forum likened the images of the newly freed captives to Holocaust survivors. “These images evoke the horrifying pictures from the liberation of the camps in 1945,” the group said in a statement.
Painful Homecomings
Some hostages are returning to shattered families. Sharabi’s wife and two teenage daughters were killed in the Hamas assault on Kibbutz Be’eri, where one in ten residents was slain.
Saturday’s exchange was the latest in a series of swaps that have so far secured the release of 13 Israeli and five Thai hostages while freeing 583 Palestinian prisoners.
The ceasefire, brokered by the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar, has largely held for 42 days. However, tensions rose this week after former U.S. President Donald Trump suggested relocating Gaza’s Palestinian population and turning the territory into a resort hub—a proposal widely condemned by Arab nations and Palestinian leaders.
Hamas dismissed the plan as an attempt to erase Palestinian identity. In a statement, the group said the armed display at the hostage handover was a message that it could not be excluded from post-war governance in Gaza.
Despite these tensions, negotiations have begun for a second phase of the ceasefire, which could involve the release of more hostages in exchange for an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
War’s Toll and Legal Fallout
Hamas’s October 7 attack killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel, with more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory air and ground campaign has since killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and left much of the enclave in ruins.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, human rights groups have reported widespread mistreatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody. The Israeli military has denied systematic abuse but is investigating several alleged cases.
