A freed Israeli hostage kissed his captors on the head and blew kisses to the crowd as he was released along with five others yesterday.
As he was being airlifted to hospital Omer Shem Tov sent a message which read: “Now everything is OK! Thank you to the dear people of Israel, and to all the soldiers! I want a hamburger.”
Hamas freed six hostages in the latest exchange with Israel as heightened tensions between the two sides cast doubt over their fragile ceasefire deal.
The six included three Israeli men seized from the Nova music festival and another abducted while visiting his family in southern Israel.
They were taken when militants stormed across the border on October 7, triggering Israel’s 16-month campaign in Gaza.
Two of the hostages had been held by Hamas for about a decade after they each entered Gaza on their own.
Five of the captives were handed over in staged ceremonies, with masked and armed Hamas fighters bringing them out in front of hundreds of Palestinians before transferring them to Red Cross vehicles.
The six hostages are the last living ones to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
In Nuseirat, in central Gaza, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, and Eliya Cohen were made to pose alongside Hamas fighters on the stage.
Hamas has come under heavy criticism for the displays, with Israel, the UN and the Red Cross saying they are cruel and do not respect the dignity of the hostages.
Watching the release, Cohen’s family and friends in Israel chanted “Eliya, Eliya, Eliya!” and cheered when they saw him for the first time. Shem Tov’s grandmother exclaimed in joy as he saw him, crying: “Omer, my joy, my life.”
The Israeli military said the final hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, 37, was released later on Saturday.
The new releases will be followed by the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Tensions had increased in the last few days when Hamas initially handed over the wrong body in place of that of Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys abducted by the militants.
The remains that Hamas transferred with her sons’ bodies on Thursday were later determined to be those of an unidentified Palestinian woman. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed revenge for “a cruel and malicious violation”, while Hamas suggested it had been a mistake.
On Friday night, the Palestinian Mujahideen Brigades, the small militant group believed to have been holding Bibas and her sons, handed over a second body. The family of Bibas said Israeli forensic authorities had confirmed the remains were hers.
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