The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they happen.

The families of Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal are expressing horror and revulsion at a Hamas propaganda video showing the two hostages being brought to watch other Israelis being released and begging for their own freedom.

“They forced them to watch their friends being released and then returned them to the tunnels. There is no greater cruelty,” Dalal’s father Ilan Dalal says. “They can’t continue. It’s simply inhumane.”

Dalal says he supported the decision for Israeli networks to broadcast the Hamas propaganda clip in hopes it will help illustrate their dire situation and help push through a second stage of the ceasefire deal, which would see the two freed, along with nearly two dozen other living hostages. However, he adds that he assumed the two were coached on what to say, making their words meaningless, though not their body language.

“Guy is thinner, his eyes looked scared, but it was Guy, his voice and his movements were like Guy,” Dalal says. He notes that neither appeared to be injured, and were likely not as bad off as some others, but were still “relatively thin, and had gone through severe psychological torture.”

Guy Dalal’s sister is quoted by Walla saying in a missive to her brother that she is “heartbroken with longing” for him, but expresses confidence that he and David “will return to us soon. Until then we won’t stop fighting with all our might.”

In the US, Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the UN, says she was with brothers of Gilboa Dalal and David at a speech by Trump when the video was released.

“Hamas’ evil depravity knows no bounds.” she writes on X. “The inhumane treatment of innocent Israeli hostages forced to watch others return home while they were then taken back into captivity further exposes that this is a war is between good and evil.”

Hamas’ evil depravity knows no bounds. The inhumane treatment of innocent Israeli hostages forced to watch others return home while they were then taken back into captivity further exposes that this is a war is between good and evil.

At the very moment that the video was…

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) February 22, 2025

Reports in Hebrew media outlets suggest that Israel’s government has decided to release Palestinian prisoners who had been slated to be go free Saturday in exchange for six living hostages released from captivity in Gaza.

A decision on the prisoners had been expected following security consultations Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting. According to at least one report, those discussions are ongoing despite the decision regarding the prisoners.

The prisoners are expected to be released in the next several hours, according to the reports.

In Ramallah, dozens of Palestinians continue to wait in frigid temperatures outside a community center for the buses carrying prisoners being released to the West Bank.

The Palestinian Quds News outlet reports that Hamas expects Israel to start freeing prisoners under the hostage release-ceasefire agreement by 12:30 a.m.

The network reports that Hamas received a signal from international mediators regarding the impending release. There is no confirmation of the report from any official........

© The Times of Israel