Hostages Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed were released from Hamas captivity and returned to Israel on Saturday, in the largest single day of releases since the current hostage-ceasefire deal took effect. They are believed to be the final living hostages scheduled for release in the current first phase of the deal, with only four more hostages, all believed to be dead, set for release on Thursday.

The terror group paraded five of the six freed hostages on stages in propaganda-filled ceremonies in two locations in Gaza, handing them over to the Red Cross, while al-Sayed was released separately to the humanitarian organization later in the day, without a ceremony.

The men all looked frail and many had noticeably suffered dramatic weight loss.

Shoham, Shem Tov, Wenkert and Cohen were all taken captive on October 7, 2023 during the Hamas-led attacks and massacres, and had been held as hostages in Gaza for over 500 days.

Mengistu and al-Sayed both entered Gaza on their own accord in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and had been held captive by terror groups in Gaza for around a decade each.

The releases came hours after Hamas finally returned the body of Shiri Bibas; Israel said she had been brutally murdered by her captors along with her two small sons, Ariel, 4, and baby Kfir, whose bodies were returned on Thursday.

The first of three handovers took place on Saturday morning in Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, during which the terror group handed Shoham and Mengistu over to the Red Cross after parading the two on a stage decorated with a propaganda poster featuring images of terror leaders and Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in 2014 and whose body is held by Hamas.

There was also a display of weapons Hamas said had been taken from Israel on October 7.

Shoham and Mengistu were then taken by the Red Cross to Israeli forces inside Gaza, who escorted them to an IDF facility inside Israel, near the border.

After brief medical checks and reunions with family members, the two men were taken via helicopter to hospitals in central Israel.

Later in the morning, at a second Hamas ceremony in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, Shem Tov, Wenkert and Cohen were paraded on stage holding certificates and gift bags, and wearing approximations of IDF uniforms as if they were soldiers.

The three civilians were kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and are not active members of the military. Hamas considers Israeli men under 50 to be soldiers.

It appeared that Cohen was made to wave by the gunmen flanking him, while Shem Tov seemed to be directed by a Hamas cameraman to also kiss two of the masked gunmen on their heads.

They,........

© The Times of Israel