TEL AVIV, February 24. /TASS/. Israel will release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners who were to have been freed on February 22 if Hamas hands over the bodies of four deceased Israeli hostages, the Ynet news portal said, citing an unnamed Israeli official.
According to Ynet, the Israeli side has approached Hamas with this proposal via the mediators. Israel also insists that Hamas drops the practice of organizing public ceremonies with improvised rallies during the transfer of the bodies of hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier that Israel had postponed the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners until Hamas abandoned public ceremonies like the one that accompanied the transfer of the bodies of hostages on February 20. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has also condemned the practice of displaying coffins on an improvised stage.
Three hostage transfers were organized on February 22. First, three hostages were released, then two, and then one - six in all. Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Tal Shoham were abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian Israeli citizen, and Hisham Al-Sayed, an Israeli Arab, who have been held hostage since 2014 and 2015, respectively. All of them were handed over to the Israeli side via the International Committee of the Red Cross. During the release of five of them, Hamas handed over "release certificates" in a televised ceremony amid Palestinian flags and Hamas banners. The sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, a Muslim, was handed over to Red Cross employees separately, without any media fuss.
Following the release of these six people, Israel was supposed to free at least 602 Palestinians from its prisons, including 50 sentenced to life, during the day, but did not do this. Hamas accused Israel of blatantly violating the Gaza ceasefire deal. Suhel al-Hindi, as senior Hamas official, told the Hamas-controlled Quds portal that the Israeli side had allegedly "adjusted the list of the prisoners to be freed" concerning 50 people.
In mid-January, Israel and Hamas reached an Egypt-, Qatar-, and US-brokered three-stage agreement to release the hostages held in Gaza and declare a ceasefire in the enclave. The three-phase deal took effect on January 19. During the initial 42-day phase, Hamas is expected to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.