The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has released three more Israeli hostages on Saturday in what is the beginning of the fifth exchange for Palestinian prisoners since the start of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The hostages are Or Levi, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, three men aged 34, 52 and 56, respectively, kidnapped by the Islamist group during the attacks of October 7, 2023, which triggered the Israeli offensive against Gaza and the subsequent regional war.
All of them have been handed over, following the usual procedure, to a Red Cross convoy after a ceremony held this time in the central Gazan town of Deir al-Bala. The Red Cross then transferred the freed hostages to an Israeli military post where they will undergo a first medical evaluation.
The Israeli government confirmed shortly after that the Red Cross had handed the freed prisoners over to the Israeli military forces. “We will accompany the three and their families along with all security agencies,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief message.
ISRAELI PRESIDENT CONDEMNS “PERVERSED” SHOW WITH “EMACRED” HOSTAGES
Images captured by the Islamist movement’s cameras revealed three pale and thin freed prisoners who had been moved with great difficulty to a podium where they had been presented to the population before being transferred to Red Cross vans.
The President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, has condemned what he has described as a “cynical and cruel show” and assured that “this is what seems to be a crime against humanity.”
“The whole world must stare at Ohad, Or and Eli, who return after 491 days of hell, hungry, emaciated and in pain, being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle by vile murderers,” he denounced on his account on the social network X.
The families of the freed hostages have also expressed their dismay at the emaciated state of the three hostages, as seen during a ceremony that the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons has denounced as especially “disturbing.”
“This is another clear and painful proof that leaves no room for doubt that there is no time to lose in freeing the hostages,” the organization said in a statement reported by the ‘Times of Israel’.
For its part, Israel will release a total of 183 Palestinian prisoners this Saturday, according to the authorities imposed by Hamas. Specifically, there are 18 people sentenced to life imprisonment, 54 prisoners with “high sentences”, and another 111 Palestinians detained in the Gaza Strip after the outbreak of the war.
