Closing summary
It is approaching 10pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here are the day’s main developments so far:
Hamas has released six hostages in Gaza today. Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu were handed over to officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on stage in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Later, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert were released in Nuseirat in central Gaza. In the afternoon, Hisham al-Sayed, was transferred to the Red Cross without a ceremony and then crossed into Israeli territory.
Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert and Hisham al-Sayed have all been returned to Israel. Mengistu and al-Sayed had been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza separately under unexplained circumstances about a decade ago. The family of al-Sayed described his return on Saturday as a “long-awaited moment”.
The release of 602 Palestinians from Israeli jail, scheduled for today in return for the latest six hostages released by Hamas, has been delayed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The reasons for doing so are not yet clear. It is understood that 445 of these prisoners were captured in the Gaza Strip after 7 October 2023 and will be released back into Gaza, while others will be deported.
Hamas has called the delay of the prisoners’ release “a blatant violation” of the ceasefire. “The [Israeli] occupation’s failure to comply with the release of the seventh batch of prisoners in the exchange deal at the agreed-upon time constitutes a blatant violation of the agreement,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanou said in a statement, accusing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of “procrastination and stalling tactics”.
The body of the Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas has been identified, after the remains initially returned were found to belong to someone else. Hamas said Shiri’s body had been “mistakenly mixed” with others who were killed and buried under rubble in Gaza.
The director of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Israel, Dr Chen Kugel, has said there is no evidence Shiri Bibas’ fatal injuries were caused by bombing. Hamas maintains she was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Hamas said on Saturday it was ready to move to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and to carry out a comprehensive hostage-prisoner exchange to achieve a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. The comments were made before reports that Israel would be delaying the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
A third mass polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists reported, with the aim of delivering the first dose to nearly 600,000 children across the Palestinian territory. Scores of children under the age of 10 received the dose at a mosque in Jabalia, northern Gaza. The vaccination campaign involves multiple UN agencies, including the Israeli-boycotted Unrwa.
British doctors who worked in Gaza during the war have issued dire predictions over the long-term health of Palestinian civilians, warning that large numbers will continue to die. The prevalence of infectious disease and multiple health problems linked to malnutrition, alongside the destruction of hospitals and killing of medical experts, meant mortality rates among Palestinians in Gaza would remain high after the cessation of Israeli shelling.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, will travel to Lebanon for the funeral of longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday, AFP reported, citing Iranian media. An Israeli airstrike killed Nasrallah on 27 September last year.
That’s it from me, Donna Ferguson, and Middle East blog for this evening. Thanks for following along.
Two of the hostages who were freed today, Tal Shoham and Omer Wenkert, were held in extremely humid tunnels where “all the seasons felt the same”, according to Israeli media.
Both said they came to feel like brothers.
Wenkert was very badly beaten when he was abducted, he told his family, and did not receive the medicines he needed for his colitis while in captivity. His first request was to join the struggle for the rest of the hostages to be freed.
Updated
Malki Shem Tov, father of Omer Shem Tov who was released today, said his son was “in tunnels alone for the whole time” he was in captivity – almost 500 days.
For the first 50 days, he was held with another hostage, and the rest of time he was on his own, The Times of Israel has reported.
He “didn’t see daylight at all”, his father said.
During the handover ceremony, he was “compelled … to wave and kiss [the top of a guard’s head]”, Malki said.
“He said they told him what to do. You can see in the footage that someone came up to him and told him what to do.”
Other Israeli media is reporting that Shem Tov was required to dress as a Muslim woman when moved around by his captors.
Updated
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, families have been waiting for hours for their loved ones to be released from Israeli custody in exchange for the six Israelis taken back home.
No clear reason has been given for the delay.
“Yesterday, I received news that he would be released, but I still can’t believe that my son will be free after 33 years,” Umm Diya al-Agha, 80, told Agence-France Presse.
Updated
Hamas says Israel delaying prisoner release is a 'blatant violation' of truce
Hamas has criticised Israel for postponing the release of the Palestinian prisoners, saying it is a “blatant violation” of the truce.
Israel pushed back the release of the prisoners to 8pm earlier this evening – but it is now after 9pm in Israel.
The terror group has said the delay violates the terms of the ceasefire deal and called on mediators to pressure Israel to “respect the ceasefire agreement and implement its provisions without stalling”, the Times of Israel reports.
Updated
The father of Hisham al-Sayed, who was freed today after nearly 10 years in captivity in Gaza, has told a radio station in Israel that he is shocked by his son’s poor mental and physical state, the Times of Israel reports.
Hisham is “destroyed, emotionally and cognitively,” said Sha’ban al-Sayed. “His mental condition is in a bad state, he doesn’t communicate, and he looks like he was in a torture camp for 10 years.”
He added: “We didn’t think to ourselves that Hamas would be so cruel.”
Updated
The director of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Israel, Dr Chen Kugel, has said there is no evidence that Shiri Bibas’ fatal injuries were caused by bombing.
Hamas has denied responsibility for the deaths of Bibas and her two young children, Kfir and Ariel, who were taken hostage in the 7 October attacks.
Instead, the terrorist group maintains the mother and her child were killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023.
It claims Israel is lying about the cause of their deaths in order to justify Israeli military actions against civilians in Gaza.
Initially, Hamas handed over the body of a Palestinian woman in place of Shiri’s body, then claimed Shiri’s body had been “mistakenly mixed” with others who were killed and buried under rubble in Gaza.
“We identified Shiri Bibas two days after we identified her children. Our examination found no evidence of injuries caused by bombing,” Kugel said.
He did not give any further information about the cause of her death.
“Since Thursday morning we have worked professionally and carefully to provide clear answers to the Lifshitz and Bibas-Silberman families. It’s a difficult day for the families, for us, the medical staff, and for the entire nation of Israel,” Kugel added.
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement earlier today: “Following our firm insistence and unequivocal demand for the immediate return of Shiri, we succeeded in bringing her back last night for burial in Israel.”
He added: “The heart of the nation is broken by the abduction and brutal murder of Shiri and her children – Ariel and Kfir. We share in the deep sorrow of the Bibas family and embrace them warmly. We will never forget and never forgive.”
Updated
Here are some more images taken today during hostage handover of six Israelis to Red Cross representatives.
In Israel, friends of the hostages celebrated their release.
Updated
The hostages released today are the last of the living hostages slated for release in the current phase of the deal.
So far, 25 Israeli captives have been released. In total, 33 Israelis – including the remains of eight who have died or been killed in captivity – are expected to be handed over in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
The BBC has some details on some of the long-serving inmates who are expected to be among the 602 Palestinian prisoners released today.
One prisoner, Ammar Al-Zaben, is a leader in Hamas’ military wing Al-Qassam Brigades. He was part of the cell responsible for five suicide bombings in 1997, including three attacks in Jerusalem that killed more than 20 Israelis and injured 300 other people. He was handed 27 life terms and has served 27 years.
Another prisoner is Nael Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian inmate in an Israeli jail. He has spent a total of 44 years behind bars, after he was jailed for killing an Israeli bus driver Mordechai Yekuel in 1978. Freed after 33 years in a previous prisoner swap, he was then rearrested three years later for violating the terms of his release by engaging in terror activities, The Times of Israel reports.
Palestinians who have been convicted of killing Israelis will be permanently deported if they are freed under the Gaza ceasefire agreement, and cannot return to homes in the West Bank. It is understood that 217 prisoners will be expelled for this reason and that Barghouti will be among them.
Alaa Bazian, who has spent 42 years in prison, and Samer Al-Mahroom, who has been incarcerated for 38 years, are also expected to be released.
The majority of the prisoners – about 400 – who are due to be released were detained without charge in Israel after the 7 October attacks, the BBC reports.
Updated
Newly-released hostage Eliya Cohen has arrived at a hospital in Israel. Like Omer Wenkert earlier, he smiled and made a heart with his hands.
Updated
Avera Mengistu has also been reunited with his family at a hospital in Tel Aviv after being held for ten years in Gaza.
Updated
Here is a photo of Tal Shoham, taken hostage in the October 7 attacks, reunited with his family.
Updated
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcome the release of the six Israeli hostages today, calling it a “moment of joy and relief” for their families and the state of Israel.
In a statement, he said his government is “committed to continuing to work resolutely to return all of our hostages home – the living to their families and the dead to a proper burial in their own country,” The Times of Israel reported.
A day after he called Hamas “savages who executed our hostages”, referring to the deaths of Shiri Bibas and her two children, he said: “We will not forget and will not forgive”.
He added that he is “committed to continuing to work resolutely to return all of our hostages home – the living to their families and the dead to a proper burial in their own country”.
Photos have emerged of the former hostage Omer Wenkert celebrating his release while being driven to hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel.
Updated
More details have emerged about the moment one of the hostages, Omer Shem Tov, saw his parents.
“You’re heroes,” Shem Tov told his parents as they later embraced, laughing and crying, according to the Associated Press news agency. “You have no idea how much I dreamt of you.”
The Times of Israel reported earlier that in an Israeli defence force helicopter, en-route to a hospital in Israel, he had posed for a photo holding a whiteboard.
In Hebrew, he had drawn a heart and a smiley face, and written the words: ““Now everything is OK! Thank you to the dear people of Israel, and to all the soldiers!”
He added: “I want a hamburger.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It is approaching 6pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here are the day’s main developments so far:
Hamas has released six hostages in Gaza today. Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu were handed over to officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on stage in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Later, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert were released in Nuseirat in central Gaza. In the afternoon, Hisham al-Sayed, was transferred to the Red Cross without a ceremony and then crossed into Israeli territory.
Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert and Hisham al-Sayed have all been returned to Israel. Mengistu and al-Sayed had been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza separately under unexplained circumstances around a decade ago. The family of al-Sayed described his return on Saturday as a “long-awaited moment”.
According to Israeli press reports, the release of 602 Palestinians from Israeli jail, scheduled for today in return for the latest six hostages released by Hamas, has been delayed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at least until a meeting of the security cabinet this evening.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club said that of the 602 Palestinians scheduled to be released from Israeli prisons today, 445 were captured in the Gaza Strip after 7 October 2023 and will be released back into Gaza.
The body of the Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas has been identified, Israel’s army radio reported early on Saturday, after the remains intitially retiurned were found to belong to someone else
The Bibas family say they have been provided no official details relating to how their loved one died – and have asked that the media stop sharing or publishing any details they hear. It comes after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a description of how it claimed the children had died.
Hamas said on Saturday it was ready to move to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and to carry out a comprehensive hostage-prisoner exchange to achieve a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. The comments were made before reports that Israel would be delaying the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
A third mass polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists reported, with the aim of delivering the first dose to nearly 600,000 children across the Palestinian territory. Scores of children under the age of 10 received the dose at a mosque in Jabalia, in northern Gaza. The vaccination campaign involves multiple UN agencies, including the Israeli-boycotted UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa).
British doctors who worked in Gaza during the war have issued dire predictions over the long-term health of Palestinian civillians, warning that large numbers will continue to die. The prevalence of infectious disease and multiple health problems linked to malnutrition, alongside the destruction of hospitals and killing of medical experts, meant mortality rates among Palestinians in Gaza would remain high after the cessation of Israeli shelling.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, will travel to Lebanon for the funeral of longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday, AFP reported, citing Iranian media. An Israeli airstrike killed Nasrallah on 27 September last year.
Updated
Release of 602 Palestinians from Israeli prisons delayed - Israeli press reports
According to Israeli press reports, the release of 602 Palestinians from Israeli jail, scheduled for today in return for the latest six hostages released by Hamas, has been delayed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at least until a meeting of the security cabinet this evening.
Long-term effects of Gaza war could quadruple Palestinian death toll, warn UK doctors
British doctors who worked in Gaza during the war have issued dire predictions over the long-term health of Palestinian civillians, warning that large numbers will continue to die.
The prevalence of infectious disease and multiple health problems linked to malnutrition, alongside the destruction of hospitals and killing of medical experts, meant mortality rates among Palestinians in Gaza would remain high after the cessation of Israeli shelling.
British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who worked in al-Shifa and al-Ahli Arab hospitals in Gaza City shortly after the war began, said levels of malnutrition there were so acute that many children would “never recover”.
Scientists have estimated that the total deaths from Israel’s war on Gaza could ultimately be as high as 186,000. The figure is almost four times higher than the 46,700 deaths that Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry have reported.
Prof Nizam Mamode, a retired British transplant surgeon from Hampshire who last year worked at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza said the number of “non-trauma deaths” could ultimately be considerably higher than 186,000. One factor, he said, was the targeting of healthcare workers during the war.
He said that of six vascular surgeons who once covered the north of the strip, just one had remained. There were no cancer pathologists left alive.
Abu-Sittah said entire teams of medical specialists had been eradicated from Gaza, and the training required to replace them would take up to 10 years.
“Certain specialities have been eviscerated,” he said. “There are no more nephrologists [a doctor specialising in kidney care] left. They’ve all been killed. There are no more board-certified emergency medicine physicians.”
The 55-year-old plastic surgeon from London said the long-term health of people in Gaza depended on how quickly the territory and its infrastructure were rebuilt.
Updated
New polio vaccination drive begins in Gaza
A third mass polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists reported, with the aim of delivering the first dose to nearly 600,000 children across the Palestinian territory.
Scores of children under the age of 10 received the dose at a mosque in Jabalia, in northern Gaza. The vaccination campaign involves multiple UN agencies, including the Israeli-boycotted UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa), and comes at a time when Israel and Hamas are observing a ceasefire that has largely halted the fighting.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the campaign aims to vaccinate more than 591,000 children by 26 February. Writing on X, the commissioner general of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini said:
Over 1,700 Unrwa team members will take part in this campaign.
This campaign follows a recent detection of polio in wastewater, putting the lives of children at risk.”
The previous two drives were conducted in late 2024 after the highly contagious disease resurfaced in Gaza for the first time in more than 20 years, reports AFP.
After more than 16 months of war between Israel and Hamas, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire. Even before the hostilities began, the territory had been struggling under an Israeli-imposed blockade for more than 15 years.
Much of the water infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving sewage to stagnate in open pools near densely populated neighbourhoods – conditions that contributed to the reemergence of the virus last autumn. The WHO reported on 19 February that traces of poliovirus had again been detected in wastewater samples.
Polio is highly contagious and can cause paralysis, primarily affecting children under the age of five. The disease has been nearly eradicated worldwide.
Hoping for a lasting truce, Bassam al-Haou, a resident of Jabalia, brought his daughters to receive the vaccine. “I also hope for stability for our innocent children so they can remain safe from violence,” he told AFP.
The family of the sixth freed Israeli hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, hailed his return on Saturday as a “long-awaited moment” after nearly a decade in Hamas captivity in Gaza.
“The Sayed family is moved by Hisham’s return home. After nearly a decade of fighting for Hisham’s return, the long-awaited moment has arrived,” the family said in a statement shortly after he crossed the border into Israeli territory, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Sixth hostage now back in Israel, confirms military
A sixth Israeli hostage freed on Saturday by Hamas militants after spending nearly a decade in captivity in Gaza is in the army’s custody and has crossed into Israeli territory, the military said, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“A short while ago, the returning hostage Hisham al-Sayed crossed the border into Israeli territory accompanied by IDF (military) and ISA (security agency) forces,” a statement from the military said, adding that he was “on his way to an initial reception point in southern Israel”.
Updated
The Palestinian Prisoners Club said that of the 602 Palestinians being released from Israeli prisons today, 445 were captured in the Gaza Strip after 7 October 2023 and will be released back into Gaza, reports the Times of Israel.
It adds that of the 602 prisoners and detainees, there are 50 serving life sentences.
Israeli authorities said 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are expected to be released today.
A couple of images, via the newswires, show vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) outside Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank:
Avera Mengistu, who was taken captive in Gaza more than a decade ago, and Tal Shoham, who was abducted during the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, were the first group of Israeli hostages to be released today.
Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert were later handed over in Nuseirat, with another hostage due to be released in exchange for more than 600 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Hamas hands over Israeli hostage Hisham al-Sayed to Red Cross - report
Hamas has handed over Israeli hostage Hisham al-Sayed to the Red Cross, Israeli media reports said, according to Reuters.
The Israeli military said in a brief statement that one hostage was transferred to the Red Cross, without naming him.
Updated
The AFP news agency is reporting that the sixth Israeli hostage has been handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza.
We’ll bring you more on this when we get it…
The day so far
It’s just gone 2.30pm in Gaza and Jerusalem. If you’re just joining us, here are the day’s main developments so far:
Hamas has released five hostages in two separate ceremonies in Gaza. The group plans to release one more hostage later today.
Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert have all been returned to Israel. Mengistu had been in Gaza for 10 years.
In return, Israel is preparing to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The body of the Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas has been identified, Israel’s army radio reported early on Saturday, after the remains intitially retiurned were found to belong to someone else
The Bibas family say they have been provided no official details relating to how their loved one died – and have asked that the media stop sharing or publishing any details they hear. It comes after the Israel Defense Forces (ID)F released a description of how it claimed the children had died.
Hamas said on Saturday it was ready to move to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and to carry out a comprehensive hostage-prisoner exchange to achieve a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Updated
The family of Avera Mengistu, the Israeli captive held longest by Hamas in Gaza, celebrated his release from captivity earlier. Mengistu walked into Gaza in 2014 and had been held by Hamas ever since.
The Israeli army said that the three hostage released by Hamas in Nuseirat today, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert, have now crossed into Israel.
According Al Jazeera, Israeli authorities have released the names of 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees who are expected to be released today. The publication shared the following:
As we reported earlier, 50 of those to be released are serving life sentences. The list also reportedly includes 60 people serving long sentences, 47 who were released as part of a 2011 exchange for an Israeli prisoner and arrested again, and more than 100 who are to be deported immediately."
Israeli authorities have provided no details on killing of Bibas hostages, says family
Israeli authorities have not provided any details regarding the killing of three Bibas family hostages after they were taken to Gaza during the 7 October attack by Hamas militants, the family said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Any publication of details (including references to the treatment of the bodies) is against the family’s wishes, and we ask that this be avoided,” the statement said. “The family has not received any such details from official sources,” it added.
The family statement comes a day after IDF released a description of how it claimed the children had died.
Updated
Some more images have been shared on the newswires:
A Red Cross convoy has departed Gaza’s Nuseirat area with three more freed Israeli hostages, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert handed over to ICRC in Nuseirat
Three more Israeli hostages have been released in Gaza by Hamas. Live TV footage showed three men led on to a stage in Nuseirat in central Gaza by armed militants.
Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert were seen waving on stage in front of Hamas propaganda, reports the Times of Israel.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:
Live TV footage shows officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) making their way to the stage in Nuseirat in central Gaza, as they prepare to sign paperwork before the latest handover of hostages by Hamas.
The Times of Israel reports that three hostages will be handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat soon. They are: Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert.
Another hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, will be will be handed over to the Red Cross at a third site, in Gaza City, reports the publication, citing an Israeli defence official.
Al Jazeera reports that al-Sayed will be released without a ceremony.
The Guardian have been unable to independently verify the reports.
Updated
Away from Gaza and Israel for a moment. Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, will travel to Lebanon for the funeral of longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports, citing Iranian media.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to turn out in Beirut for the funeral, according to AFP.
An Israeli airstrike killed Nasrallah on 27 September last year at the start of an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel after roughly a year of lower-level conflict. The massive airstrike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold also killed Abbas Nilforoushan, a senior commander in Iran’s al-Quds force – the foreign operations arm of its Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Ghalibaf “along with a number of parliamentarians and state officials will leave on Sunday for Lebanon to attend Nasrallah’s funeral”, member of parliament Alireza Salimi told the official IRNA news agency on Saturday. On Friday evening, the Fars news agency reported that foreign minister Abbas Araghchi would also attend the ceremony.
Updated
ICRC vehicles arrive in Nuseirat for next hostage handover by Hamas
Live footage has shown International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) vehicles arriving at a second site for Saturday’s hostages handover, reports Reuters. The ICRC vehicles are in central Gaza’s Nuseirat.
More details soon …
Updated
The family of Avera Mengistu, who was freed on Saturday by Hamas militants in a ceremony in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, said they had endured over a decade of “unimaginable suffering” during his captivity, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Our family has endured 10 years and five months of unimaginable suffering”, they said in a statement, adding that “we gather in anxious anticipation of the return of our beloved son, brother and uncle Avera”.
Mengistu had been held by Hamas since entering Gaza under unexplained circumstances around a decade ago.
Updated
The body of the Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas has been identified, Israel’s army radio reported early on Saturday, adding that Bibas was likely killed in captivity with her children.
The confirmation came as Israelis and Palestinians braced for another tense exchange of hostages, prisoners and detainees on Saturday after uproar in Israel over allegations that two child hostages were “brutally murdered” by Hamas, and the group’s initial failure to deliver the body of their mother, instead returning the corpse of an unidentified woman.
The remains of the Bibas children, 85-year-old Oded Lifshitz and a fourth person who was supposed to be Shiri Bibas were handed over to Israel on Thursday as part of the first stage of a fragile Gaza ceasefire agreement.
After the Israeli military said DNA testing showed the woman’s body released was not Shiri Bibas or any other hostage, Hamas claimed Shiri’s body had been “mistakenly mixed” with others who were killed and buried under the rubble in Gaza.
Hamas on Friday released another body to the Red Cross. In a statement on Saturday, the Bibas family said: “After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest.”
Update: this post previously included a statement from the Israel Defense Forces on how the Bibas children died – but the Bibas family has since requested such details are not published.
Updated
Hamas has handed over to the Red Cross the first two of six Israeli hostages due to be freed on Saturday under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
The two hostages – Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39 – have crossed into Israel, according to Isaeli security sources, reports Reuters.
Updated
The Israeli military said the two hostages freed by Hamas militants on Saturday were now in its custody in the Gaza Strip, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Earlier, Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu were handed over to officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on stage in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Updated
Hamas says ready to move to second phase of ceasefire deal
According to Reuters, Hamas said on Saturday it was ready to move to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and to carry out a comprehensive hostage-prisoner exchange to achieve a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Updated
Hamas hands over Israeli hostages Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu to Red Cross
The two hostages in Rafah have been handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross and driven away in its vehicles.
Updated
Tal Shoham with Hamas gunmen on the stage in Rafah.
Militants have led two people on to the stage in Rafah, with reports suggesting they are Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu. They are standing holding apparent certificates and flanked by masked gunmen.
Updated
A masked militant has sat down at a table on the stage with a Red Cross representative and they appear to be signing documents.
Updated
Live images from Rafah are showing masked Hamas militants taking to the makeshift stage, with one speaking into a microphone.
Updated
A Hamas source has confirmed that the Islamist group plans to release two hostages from Rafah, southern Gaza, and then four from Nuseirat in central Gaza later in the morning, Agence France-Presse reports.
The news agency continues:
At both locations the militants prepared for a now well-rehearsed ceremony, building stages to parade the hostages to be released in front of large posters advertising its cause or praising fallen fighters.
The Red Cross has repeatedly appealed for handovers to take place in a dignified manner.
Under a cold winter rain in Rafah, Hamas fighters wearing military fatigues, balaclavas and Hamas headbands stood in a square around the space where the handover was to occur.
In a show of force after months of bombardment and strikes that killed the group’s top leaders, some fighters held automatic weapons, others rocket launchers.
Hamas’s green flag flew around the square on buildings destroyed by war in the Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Israel would free 602 inmates on Saturday as part of the exchange.
A spokeswoman for the NGO told AFP that most were Gazans arrested after the war began. She added that 108 of the prisoners would be deported outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories after their release.
Updated
Images from Rafah are showing a convoy of Red Cross vehicles arriving at the scene as crowds and armed, masked militants stand nearby.
Updated
A convoy of Red Cross vehicles is now heading to a hostage handover site set up by Hamas in Rafah in southern Gaza, the Times of Israel is quoting an Israeli defense official as saying.
The Red Cross is expected to receive two hostages there, the report says. According to Al Jazeera, hostages Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu will be freed in Rafah. The other four – Omer Shem-Tov, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert and Hisham al-Sayed – will be released later in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
The Times is also reporting that at the Rafah handover location, Hamas is displaying weaponry it claims was stolen from the Israeli military in the October 2023 attack that sparked the war.
The report says:
On the stage prepared by Hamas in Rafah are the usual placards with messages including “We are the flood” as well as military weapons and equipment the group claims were stolen from the IDF on October 7 2023.
One piece is a gun on which the group wrote “Ravshatz”, the Hebrew acronym for the head of a community’s local security team, indicating it was taken from such an individual killed by terrorists during the October 7 attack.
Updated
Israelis are gathering in Tel Aviv as they wait for the anticipated release of six hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. These images have come in from Israel:
Updated
The Israeli military expects Hamas to release the six Israeli hostages from two separate locations in Gaza starting from 9am local time, the Times of Israel is reporting a defence official as saying.
Hamas will first release hostages from southern Gaza’s Rafah and afterwards from Nuseirat in the Strip’s centre.
The official says there could be delays.
The six hostages will be taken by the Red Cross to IDF troops in the Gaza Strip, the report says.
From there, the troops will escort them to an army facility near Re’im for an initial checkup and to meet with family members before they are airlifted to Sourasky and Rabin hospitals in central Israel.
Al Jazeera reports that two of the hostages will be freed in Rafah, while the other four will be released in Nuseirat.
Here are some of the images coming in from Gaza ahead of the expected handover.
Updated
Israeli media reports in the past hour said Hamas was setting up stages in southern and central Gaza ahead of the expected release of six Israeli hostages this morning.
Live images from Gaza are showing crowds gathering and armed, masked militants grouped at the scene.
Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis. It’s just after 8.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv – here’s the latest news.
Israel prepared on Saturday to receive six more hostages from Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, after accusations over the return of a misidentified body this week threatened to derail a fragile truce.
After Hamas handed over another body on Friday, Israel’s army radio reported early on Saturday that it had been identified as Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, adding that she was likely killed in captivity with her children.
The six hostages set to be freed on Saturday are the last living hostages from a group of 33 due to be freed in the first stage of the ceasefire deal agreed last month, Reuters reports.
Four of the hostages – Eliya Cohen, 27, Tal Shoham, 40, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23 – were seized by Hamas gunmen during their attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Another two, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, and Avera Mengistu, 39, have been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza separately under unexplained circumstances around a decade ago.
In return, Israel is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in its jails in the latest exchanges under a ceasefire that has held up despite a series of problems that have come close to sinking it.
Late on Thursday, Israel accused Hamas of violating the truce by handing over an unidentified body instead of the remains of Shiri Bibas that were due to be returned along with the bodies of her two small sons. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed revenge for what he described as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas said her remains appeared to have been mixed up with other human remains recovered from the rubble after an Israeli airstrike it said killed her and her two sons in November 2023, and on Friday the militant group handed over another body. The Bibas family – which became an indelible symbol of the 7 October attack – said in a statement on Saturday that “this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister and all her family to rest”.
In other developments:
The Bibas family accused Netanyahu of failing to protect their loved ones during Hamas’s 2023 attack and of failing to bring them home. “There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7, and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity,” said Ofri Bibas, the sister-in-law of Shiri Bibas, in a statement.
Netanyahu said he has ordered the Israeli military to carry out an intensive operation against what he called “centres of terrorism” in the West Bank. He also said on social media that he had ordered Shin Bet and police to increase “preventative” measures against attacks on Israeli cities. It followed a series of explosions on three parked buses in Bat Yam, a city outside Tel Aviv, on Thursday night. Authorities said they were a suspected terrorist attack. No injuries were reported.
More than half a million children have been left without education across Gaza and the West Bank, according to the International Rescue Committee. The NGO warned that vital aid for children in the region was being scuppered by increasing violence.
Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman held a meeting with Egyptian and Jordanian leaders described as “an informal brotherly gathering” by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. It came ahead of an Arab League summit likely to discuss the Gaza Strip after the US president, Donald Trump, proposed it “take over” the territory and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents, a plan Arab countries have universally rejected.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald will boycott St Patrick’s Day events in the US over Gaza. She and Northern Ireland’s first minister, Michelle O’Neill, said they would not attend the celebrations after Trump’s call to exile Palestinians from the territory.
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