A day of joy, sadness and αbhorrence as Hamas releases six more hostages

Amid delays and changes, Hamas today finally released the six hostages it had committed to free as a part of the ceasefire agreement with Israel.

However, the terrorists’ demand for Omer Shem Tov to kiss one of the terrorists on the head for propaganda purposes sparked outrage.

According to press reports quoting an unnamed Israeli official, Jerusalem has decided to delay the release of 602 terrorists and suspects from prison until later. tonight. It is not known whether this is related to the terrorists’ actions today or to the gruesome forensic discovery that Shiri Bibas and her two toddlers weren’t killed in an airstrike, as Hamas claims, but were savagely murdered and their bodies were mutilated to support Hamas’s claim.

The Israeli source quoted above stated that “Regarding the delay in the release of the terrorists – after the conclusion of the security consultation (by the Prime Minister tonight), a decision will be made regarding the next steps and the completion of the return of the hostages’ remains at this stage.

Earlier, Hamas released the six hostages in three stages.

The first took place in Rafah in the early morning and the freed hostages were Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu. Shoham, 40, was kidnapped along with his wife, his two children, his mother-in-law and three other relatives on October 7 from Kibbutz Be’eri. All but him were released in November 2023. Avera Mengistu, who suffers from mental illness, entered Gaza on his own in 2014 and has been in captivity since then.

Nuseirat in central Gaza was the site of the second phase, which was scheduled to take place elsewhere. Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert, both 22 years old, were abducted from the Nova Music Festival. Shem Tov was driven to Gaza in his own car with his friends Maya and Itay Regev, who were released in November 2023.

Wenkert, 22, was at the festival with his friend Kim, who was found murdered. Wenkert’s fate remained unknown until his family shared a video of him lying handcuffed in a truck being transported to Gaza.

Hisham al-Sayed, now 37, is a Bedouin Arab Israeli who crossed the border into Gaza in 2015 and was kidnapped and held by Hamas for 10 years, despite the severe mental health issues he struggled with. His captors knew that he had been diagnosed with “schizophrenia and a personality disorder, among other things,” and had been repeatedly institutionalized. He was released without ceremony.

Tonight, al-Sayed’s father told Kan Radio that he was shocked by his son’s poor mental and physical condition following his release from nearly 10 years of Hamas captivity. Sha’ban al-Sayed added that Hisham was “destroyed, emotionally and cognitively.” “His mental state is bad, he doesn’t communicate, and he looks like he was in a torture camp for 10 years,” the father said, adding that the family never imagined that “Hamas would be so cruel.”

The joy at the release of the six and last hostages in this first phase of the deal, was somewhat overshadowed, however, by the gruesome discovery that Kfir and Ariel Bibas had not been killed in an airstrike, but by their captors in a gruesome manner. Their bodies were then mutilated to support the claim that they had been killed by the IDF. Forensic evidence also showed that the remains originally sent to Israel were not those of Shiri Bibas, but those of another woman. Hamas sent another body that was finally identified as Shiri Bibas, and forensic evidence showed, as was announced tonight, that she was also not killed by an explosion.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the six hostages home today, calling it a “moment of joy and relief” for their families and for Israel. However, he stressed that Israel “will not forget and will not forgive” the murder of the three members of the Bibas family.