After Hamas said it will release six living Israeli hostages and return four bodies, family members expressed both happiness and grief ahead of the release, while Palestinians in Gaza maintain hope that the ceasefire will hold.
Family members of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas expressed both happiness and grief ahead of the next release scheduled for this Thursday and Saturday.
Hamas announced that it will free six living Israeli hostages on Saturday and return the bodies of four others on Thursday, a surprise acceleration in releases apparently in trade for Israel’s allowing mobile homes and construction equipment into the devastated Gaza Strip.
The six are the last living hostages set to be freed during the ceasefire’s first phase in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Herut Nimrodi, mother of hostage Tamir Nimrodi who is not slated to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire, said she had strong mixed emotions about the news.
“The feeling of going from being so sad to being so happy, and it’s all mixed up together. I don’t know. This is really something you don’t know how exactly to react to,” said Nimrodi.
“My son is not in this deal, and I have no idea if he survived or not, and I’m still hanging there with no information and I’m scared I won’t get to the point where I can hug him and feel him again and start our lives again,” she added.
‘Bibas family’ to be among returned bodies
The announcement by Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, in pre-recorded remarks released Tuesday, said the dead would include the “Bibas family” — two young boys and their mother who for many Israelis have come to symbolise the plight of those taken captive. Israel has not confirmed their deaths, and the prime minister’s office urged the public not to distribute “photos, names and rumours” after the announcement by Hamas.
“In the past few hours, we have been in turmoil,” surviving members of the Bibas family said in a statement released Tuesday by a group representing the relatives of hostages. “Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over.”
Israel has long expressed grave concern about Shiri Bibas and her sons, Kfir and Ariel, who Hamas claimed had been killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. Husband and father Yarden Bibas was kidnapped separately and released this month.
Kfir, who was 9 months old at the time, was the youngest hostage taken in Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack.
The six living hostages slated for release are Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed, and Avera Mengistu, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Tuesday.
Palestinians maintain hope for second phase of ceasefire
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to allow long-requested mobile homes and construction equipment into Gaza as part of efforts to accelerate the hostages’ release.
Hamas last week threatened to hold up releases, citing the refusal to allow in mobile homes and heavy equipment among other alleged violations of the truce.
Indeed, Israel began allowing entry of rubble-removing equipment on Tuesday. Two bulldozers were seen clearing rubble in an area near the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing. An Egyptian driver told the Associated Press that dozens of bulldozers and tractors were at another crossing, awaiting Israeli permission to enter.
The ceasefire’s current phase runs until the beginning of March, and there are fears that fighting will resume. The warring sides have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
Palestinians in Gaza expressed hope that the ceasefire will hold into the next phase. “We have been very patient, and we hope that the truce will continue, as we have witnessed death and destruction,” said Raafat Azzam, a resident of Jabaliya in northern Gaza. “We want a permanent truce. Our generation was executed, the young generation has been executed.”
The ceasefire that began in mid-January paused fighting that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
But Israel’s government still says it wants to eliminate Hamas as a military and governing force in Gaza. And U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to permanently remove Gaza’s 2 million residents and redevelop the territory, though rejected by the Arab world and the Palestinians, has stirred even more uncertainty. Egypt is working on a counter-plan to rebuild without moving Palestinians.
