Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Tuesday evening to end the Gaza ceasefire deal if Hamas failed to release captives by Saturday noon.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by noon on Saturday, the ceasefire will be terminated, and the Israeli army will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” Netanyahu said in a video statement after a four-hour security cabinet meeting.
The Israeli premier said that he instructed the army “to mobilize forces inside and around the Gaza Strip.”
The threat came one day after Hamas said that it would delay the next hostage release in response to Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.
Local Palestinian authorities have listed a series of Israeli violations of the deal, including the shooting of civilians and denying access to relief materials, including tents and caravans for displaced civilians in Gaza.
Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday handed over three Israeli hostages whose gaunt appearance shocked Israelis, and Israel began freeing dozens of Palestinians in the latest stage of a ceasefire aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Or Levy, who was abducted that day from the Nova music festival, were led onto a Hamas podium by gunmen.
The three men appeared thin, weak and pale, in worse condition than the 18 other hostages already freed under the truce agreed in January after 15 months of war.
Ohad Ben Ami, a hostage held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, is released by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, February 8. Reuters
“He looked like a skeleton, it was awful to see,” Ohad Ben Ami’s mother-in-law, Michal Cohen, told Channel 13 News as she watched the Hamas-directed handover ceremony, which included the hostages answering questions posed by a masked man as militants armed with automatic rifles stood on each side.
In another show of force by Hamas, which has paraded fighters during previous releases, dozens of its militants deployed in central Gaza as it handed hostages over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The hostages were then driven in ICRC cars to Israeli forces and into Israel, where they had tearful reunions with family members, and flown to hospitals. “We missed you so much,” the mother of Or Levy, Geula, said as she hugged her son.
Families and supporters react as they celebrate the release of Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken from Kibbutz Be’eri and held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, as part of a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the sight of the frail hostages was shocking and would be addressed.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog described the release ceremony as cynical and vicious. “This is what a crime against humanity looks like,” he said.
The Hostage Families Forum said the images of the hostages evoked images of survivors of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. “We have to get ALL THE HOSTAGES out of hell,” it said.
In exchange for the hostages’ release, Israel was freeing 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people, as well as 111 detained in Gaza during the war.
Cheering crowds greeted the buses as they arrived in Gaza, embracing the freed detainees, some of them weeping with joy and tearing prison-issued bracelets off their wrists.
Among those freed in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was Eyad Abu Shkaidem, sentenced to 18 life terms in Israel for masterminding suicide attacks in revenge for Israel’s 2004 assassinations of Hamas leaders.
“Today, I am reborn,” Shkaidem told reporters as the crowd cheered.
The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said six of the 42 released in the West Bank were in poor health and were taken to hospital. Some prisoners complained of ill-treatment. “The occupation humiliated us for over a year,” said Shkaidem.
PAINFUL RETURN
Some hostages face a painful return. Sharabi’s two teenage daughters and his British-born wife were slain in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where one in 10 residents was killed.
Israel’s Channel 12 said Sharabi had not been told about their deaths and asked where they were when he arrived.
Levy will be reunited with his three-year-old son. His wife was killed in the attack.
Dr Hagar Mizrachi from Israel’s Ichilov Hospital said the hostages exhibited severe weight loss and malnutrition.
Or Levy, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, are released by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel. Reuters.
Sixteen Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released so far and 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been freed.
The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, mediated by Washington, Cairo and Doha, has largely held since it took effect on January 19.
Netanyahu sent a delegation for talks in Doha on Saturday, Israel’s Channel 12 reported, citing a political source.
Concern the deal might collapse before all remaining 76 hostages are free has grown since President Donald Trump’s surprise call for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and for the enclave to be handed to the United States and developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Arab states and Palestinian groups have rejected Trump’s proposal, which critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing. Hamas said on Saturday its armed display at the hostage handover showed it could not be excluded from post-war Gaza arrangements.
Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s intervention and his defence minister has ordered the military to make plans to allow Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza to do so.
Under the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli children, women and sick, wounded and older men are to be released during the first stage in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Negotiations on a second phase began this week aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing on a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation for a final end to the war.
Hamas-led gunmen killed some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages in the October 7, 2023 attack, according to Israeli tallies.
The offensive Israel launched in response in Gaza has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated much of the enclave.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas released four Israeli female soldiers on Saturday, who will be exchanged for 200 Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israeli jails.
The four were all members of a mainly female unit of observers posted round Gaza to watch for signs of Hamas activity, who were among around 250 hostages seized during the attack on Oct. 7.
Footage showing the capture of the four, as well as another soldier, at the Nahal Oz military base was broadcast on Israeli television last year after their families gave permission in a bid to increase awareness and build pressure to get them back.
Looking dazed and still wearing their pyjamas, the images, taken from Hamas bodycam footage recovered by the Israeli military, showed them sitting on the floor with their hands tied, some of them bloodied.
NAAMA LEVY, 20
Video of Naama Levy being bundled into a jeep in Gaza circulated on social media within hours of her abduction. It showed Levy bruised and cut, the seat of her trousers stained with blood, with her hands tied behind her back, pushed into the vehicle by a gunman while bystanders chant “God is greatest!” in Arabic. She had just begun her military service when the attack took place and as she was pushed into the jeep, she pleaded: “I have friends in Palestine,” footage released of her capture showed.
DANIELLA GILBOA, 20
Daniela Gilboa was wounded during the attack on Oct. 7 and was shown limping in the video showing the soldiers’ capture.
She was seen last year in a video released by Hamas, which showed her appealing angrily to the government to work for her release and saying she felt abandoned.
LIRI ALBAG, 19
Liri Albag was taken hostage just a day and a half after beginning her military service, Israeli media reported.
Earlier this month, Hamas released a video showing her reading a message, appealing for her release.
KARINA ARIEV, 20
Just before being taken, Karina Ariev managed to speak briefly wth her parents and sent her family a farewell message, Israeli media reported. A subsequent photo of her in captivity released by Hamas showed her with a bandaged head with what appeared to be blood stains.
Three hostages held by Hamas were released Sunday after 471 days in captivity as part of a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group. A gradual release of dozens of captives over the next several weeks has been agreed on.
The truce and release of hostages sparked hope and trepidation among Israelis. Many fear that the three-phase deal could collapse before all the hostages return, or that they will arrive in poor health. Others worry that the number of captives who have died is more than predicted.
Some 250 people were kidnapped during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered 15 months of war. Around 100 hostages still remain in Gaza, after the rest were released, rescued, or their bodies were recovered.
Hours before Sunday’s ceasefire, which many hope is the first step to end the war, Israel announced that it had retrieved the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier who was killed in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war and whose remains have been held by the militants since then.
Here’s a look at the three hostages to be released Sunday:
Romi Gonen, 24
Romi Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That morning, Gonen’s mother, Merav, and her eldest daughter spent nearly five hours speaking to Gonen as militants marauded through the festival grounds. Gonen told her family that roads clogged with abandoned cars made escape impossible and that she would seek shelter in some bushes.
Then she said words that continue to echo in her mother’s head every day. “Mommy I was shot, the car was shot, everybody was shot. … I am wounded and bleeding. Mommy, I think I’m going to die,” she recounted Romi as saying, in a press conference a few weeks after the abduction.
This undated photo, provided by Hostage’s Family Forum, shows Israeli hostage Romi Gonen, who is being held in Gaza by Hamas militants. (Hostage’s Family Forum via AP)
At a loss for what to do, Merav Gonen tried to convince her daughter that she wasn’t going to die, to start breathing and treat her wounded friends. According to Merav, Romi’s last word during the call was a shriek of “Mommy!” as approaching gunfire and the men’s shouts drowned out everything.
Then the phone shut off. Israeli authorities identified her phone’s location in Gaza.
Former hostage Romi Gonen meets with her mother
Over the past 15 months, Merav Gonen has been one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing nearly daily on Israeli news programs and traveling abroad on missions.
“We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget,” she told The Associated Press on the six-month anniversary of Hamas’ attack. “Every day we wake up and take a big breath, deep breath, and continue walking, continue doing the things that will bring her back.”
Emily Damari, 28
Emily Damari is a British-Israeli citizen kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village hit hard by Hamas’ assault. She lived in a small apartment in a neighborhood for young adults, the closest part of the kibbutz to Gaza. Militants broke through the border fence of the kibbutz and ransacked the neighborhood.
This undated photo, provided by Hostage’s Family Forum, shows Israeli hostage Emily Damari, who is being held in Gaza by Hamas militants. (Hostage’s Family Forum via AP)
Damari’s mother, Mandy, said she loves music, traveling, soccer, good food, karaoke and hats. Kibbutz Kfar Aza said that Damari was often the “glue that held her close-knit friend group together” and she was always organizing gatherings of friends around the best barbecue corner in the entire kibbutz.
Former hostage Emily Damari and her mother reunite at an IDF facility in southern Israel. According to Damari’s family, Emily lost two fingers after being shot by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 onslaught.
On Sunday, Mandy released a statement of thanks for supporters “who never stopped saying her name.”
“After 471 days Emily is finally home,” she said.
Doron Steinbrecher, 31
Doron Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse who loves animals, and a neighbor to Damari in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Steinbrecher holds both Israeli and Romanian citizenship.
At 10:20 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2023, Steinbrecher called her mother. “Mom, I’m scared. I’m hiding under the bed and I hear them trying to enter my apartment,” her brother, Dor, recalled. She was able to send a voice message to her friends. “They’ve got me! They’ve got me! They’ve got me!” in the moments of her abduction.
This undated photo provided by Hostage’s Family Forum shows Israeli hostage Doron Steinbrecher, who is being held in Gaza by Hamas militants. (Hostage’s Family Forum via AP)
That message was key in helping her family understand that Doron had been kidnapped.
Steinbrecher was featured in a video released by Hamas on Jan. 26, 2024, along with two female Israeli soldiers. Her brother said the video gave them hope that she was alive but sparked concern because she looked tired, weak, and gaunt.
Former hostage Doron Steinbrecher meets her mother after 471 days in Hamas captivity.
In total, militants killed 64 people and 22 soldiers, and kidnapped 19 people from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7. With the return of Steinbrecher and Damari, there are still three members of the kibbutz held in Gaza: American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65, and twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 27.
Remains of Oron Shaul, 20
Oron Shaul was a soldier killed on July 20, 2014, during fighting between Israel and Hamas. His body and that of another soldier, Hadar Goldin, had been held by militants since then despite a public campaign to return them by their families.
This undated photo, provided by Hostage’s Family Forum, shows Israeli soldier Oron Shaul, who was killed during the 2014 war and whose body has been held by Hamas until Israeli soldiers recovered his body on January 19, 2025. (Hostage’s Family Forum via AP)
The Hostages Families Forum, which represents relatives of the captives, called the Shaul family an “inseparable part” of the group.
Militants still hold the bodies of Goldin as well as two Israelis who crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015 on their own.
