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Hamas freed three hostages from Gaza and Israel released 183 prisoners and detainees on Saturday, the fifth exchange under a fragile, three-week-old ceasefire deal.
The gaunt appearance of the three Israeli men shocked the country, sparking anger and dismay that could increase pressure on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to extend the agreement to a second stage, bringing home the remaining Israeli captives.
The Israeli leader may face a choice between keeping his government or sealing a second stage of the ceasefire, which under a framework plan would see all hostages freed and Israeli forces pulling out of Gaza.
The far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich opposed the ceasefire and has threatened to quit the coalition if the war does not resume, which would probably bring it down.
On Saturday evening he hit out at Israelis who had compared the freed hostages to emaciated victims of Nazi concentration camps, saying it was “grave mistake” that showed “contempt” for the Holocaust.
The three men appeared more frail than 13 Israelis and five Thai citizens who had previously been released.
Smotrich suggested those calling to extend the ceasefire because of fears about the condition of dozens of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza want to “surrender to Hamas”.
Many Palestinian prisoners released to Ramallah hours after the Israelis were freed also looked extremely thin, and seven out of 43 needed hospitalisation, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said.
Rights groups and whistleblowers have described a policy of “institutionalised abuse” in Israeli jails and detention centres. Severely reduced rations have led to prisoners emerging emaciated, in some cases having lost dozens of kilograms.
Some of those released were serving multiple life sentences for violent offences. But also freed on Saturday were 111 detainees from Gaza, arrested after 7 October 2023 and never charged before their release.
Netanyahu, who is in Washington for meetings with Donald Trump and other US allies, has repeatedly indicated that he is prepared to resume the war, insisting that only a “complete” military victory can keep Israel safe.
“We will eliminate Hamas, and we will return our hostages,” he said in a statement celebrating the releases, and attacking the way the hostages were treated.
The Israeli leader has ordered a delegation to Qatar to discuss “technical matters”, but no substantial talks will start until after a security cabinet meeting on Monday, Israeli media reported.
Israel’s hostage coordinator, Brig Gen Gal Hirsch, said he viewed the condition of those freed with great concern.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker is in Gaza and not due for release under the first stage of the deal, accused Netanyahu of “sitting in a hotel in Washington, trying to sabotage” a deal that would save her son.
“Tell them to shorten the first stage, close [the deal] on the second stage, and this time, bring them all home at once,” she said in a statement quoted by Israeli media.
A Hamas political bureau member, Basem Naim, warned Israel’s “lack of commitment” is putting the Gaza ceasefire in danger of collapse. He told AFP the group did not want to return to war, but was ready to fight if the ceasefire collapsed.
The next round of negotiations was officially started at the beginning of the week, when Netanyahu met Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, but Naim said talks were not yet under way.
Netanyahu has ordered a delegation to Qatar to discuss “technical matters”, but no substantial talks will start until after he returns from Washington for a security cabinet meeting on Monday, Israeli media reported.
A third stage would see the reconstruction of Gaza, but the process has been thrown into turmoil by Trump’s shock suggestion that the US should take over the territory and Palestinians be resettled elsewhere, prompting the UN secretary general to warn of ethnic cleansing.
Israelis were also angered by a Hamas ceremony that saw the frail-looking men forced to make statements on a stage in Gaza before they were taken to waiting buses.
Israel made prisoners due for release watch a film about the destruction of the Gaza Strip in the war, some of those released said, and was criticised last week for releasing prisoners wearing bracelets with pro-Israeli messages.
The Red Cross said it was “increasingly concerned” about the releases, in a statement that urged all parties including mediators “to ensure that future releases are dignified and private”.
Two of the Israeli hostages were emerging from captivity to news of painful losses.
Eli Sharabi, taken hostage from Be’eri kibbutz, was not told during his entire captivity that his wife and daughters had been killed on 7 October 2023, Israeli media reported.
Or Levy, who was abducted from the Nova music festival, suspected his wife was dead, but did not have the news confirmed. He was reunited with his now three-year-old son, who was staying with grandparents on the morning of the attack.
