Hamas is planning to release six more Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip on Saturday. However, the exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners is overshadowed by escalating tension between the two parties, casting a shadow over the future of the delicate ceasefire agreement.
As the preparations progressed on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised retaliation for what he described as “a cruel and malicious breach” of the deal due to the mistaken identity provided by militants.
The relatives of Shiri Bibas announced that Israeli forensic experts had verified that the remains handed over overnight belonged to the Israeli mother of two young boys. Her remains were transferred on Friday following an incident where a body provided on Thursday had been initially misidentified as hers but was later determined to be an unidentified Palestinian woman.
“For 16 months we sought certainty, and now that it’s here, it brings no comfort, though we hope it marks the beginning of closure,” the Bibas family said.
Three other bodies returned Thursday were confirmed as those of Bibas’ sons and Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when all were taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 in Israel and ignited the war.
Israel said its tests determined that the hostages had been killed by their captors. Hamas has claimed Lifshitz and the members of the Bibas family were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
Hamas said it would “conduct a thorough review” of information regarding the body and suggested that Israeli bombing of the area where hostages were held might have caused a mix-up of remains.
The group’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it would go ahead with the release of the six Israeli hostages planned for Saturday.
The dispute over the body’s identity raised new doubt about the ceasefire deal, which has paused over 15 months of war but is nearing the end of its first phase. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal, are likely to be even more difficult.
The six Israeli men set for release Saturday are expected to be the last living hostages freed during the ceasefire’s first phase.
They include Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; and Omer Wenkert, 23. All three were abducted from a music festival during the Oct. 7 attack. Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken from the community of Kibbutz Beeri, is also set to be released.
Avera Mengistu, 39, and Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who have been held since crossing into Gaza on their own years ago, are also scheduled to be returned to Israel as part of the deal.
On Saturday morning, hundreds of people gathered in a rainy Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip as Hamas prepared to release the hostages.
More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange, the Palestinian prisoners media office said 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 won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, says he’s committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
Trump’s proposal to remove about 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so the U.S. can own and rebuild it has thrown the ceasefire into further doubt. His idea has been welcomed by Netanyahu but universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries.
Trump said Friday that he was “a little surprised” by rejections of the proposal by Egypt and Jordan and that he would not impose it.
“I’ll tell you, the way to do it is my plan. I think that’s the plan that really works. But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it,” Trump said in a Fox News interview.
Israel’s military offensive killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble. At its height, the war displaced 90% of Gaza’s population. Many have returned to their homes to find nothing left and no way of rebuilding.
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