Ceasefire in Jeopardy as Israel Delays Prisoner Release Amid Controversial Hostage Returns
Hamas militants and Israeli hostages during a release ceremony in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on February 8, 2025 (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hanna)
Israel delayed the release of 620 Palestinians due to be freed on Feb. 22, violating the terms of an already-fragile ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the delay on Hamas’ “cynical exploitation” of Israeli hostages in a series of “humiliating” release ceremonies.
Jerusalem’s decision followed Hamas’ release of the last six living Israeli hostages set to be freed in the ceasefire’s first phase: Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham Al-Sayed. Israelis have denounced Hamas’ hostage releases as “grotesque” and “performative” shows of force. The Palestinian resistance group has freed 25 living hostages since the ceasefire began in January.
On Feb. 8, Hamas released three male hostages at an event that featured hundreds of armed, uniformed militants and a signing ceremony with the Red Cross. The men, Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, gaunt and frail after 16 months in captivity, were paraded onto a stage in the center of Gaza City before being released.
The Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel commented on the affair. “These images and the conditions in which [the hostages] returned will be etched in the memory of the world and will be eternal testimony to the failure, to all who chose to oppose the deal, to all who continue to explain why we should wait, postpone or hesitate.”
Hamas has refuted Israel’s critiques, adding that any evolution in the ceasefire deal is contingent on the release of the 620 indefinitely-imprisoned Palestinians in Israel. Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, labeled their delayed release a “grave danger” to the shaky ceasefire agreement.
Naim urged international actors, “especially the Americans... to pressure Netanyahu and his government to implement the agreement as it is and immediately release our prisoners.”
Antonio Gutterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, warned of the ceasefire’s “precarious” nature and insisted on the “dignified release of all remaining hostages” in an address at the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council on Feb. 24. He also expressed concern over rising Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 24, 2025 (Savaltore Di Nolfi/AP Photo)
Israeli outrage over the hostages’ release grew after Hamas returned the corpse of a Gazan woman instead of the remains of Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother who was kidnapped with her two young sons. The bodies of Bibas’ children, Ariel and Kfir, who became symbols of Israeli anguish after Oct. 7, were returned on Feb. 20, along with the remains of another Israeli hostage, Oded Lifshitz.
The Israeli Defense Forces released a statement condemning Hamas’ breach of the ceasefire agreement: “This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is required by the agreement to return four dead abductees. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all of our abductees.”
Hamas returned the correct body on Feb. 22, and Bibas’ identity was verified at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv.
“Our Shiri was murdered in captivity,” the Bibas family announced, “and [she] has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family for rest."
Hamas has insisted that Bibas and her sons were killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, though an Israeli forensic examination found “no evidence of injuries caused by bombing.”
As Israelis mourn the deaths of Bibas and her sons, hundreds of Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, allegedly enduring torture at the hands of the IDF. For those unnamed prisoners and their families, the agonizing wait for reunification draws on.