Five Israeli hostages were released on Saturday by Hamas, as part of the seventh exchange organized since the truce in force in Gaza. A diplomatic gesture which, far from eating tensions, rekindles the pain of families and revives criticism against the instrumentalization of captives. In a fine rain, the fighters of Hamas, hooded and in trellis, orchestrated this staging already well established. The hostages, scrutinized by a crowd gathered in the ruins of Rafah and usirat, were forced to parade before being given to the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR). Their faces, sometimes closed, sometimes marked with a tense smile, told without saying the test of 505 days of captivity.
Among the freed, Tal Shoham, Israeli-Italian-Austrian 40, was forced to pronounce a few words at the microphone, ultimately defaulting. By his side, Avera Mengistu, head down and described as suffering from mental disorders, struggled to walk. The two men were then transported by the ICRC to the Israeli army. Later in the day, three other hostages – Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert – were released to Nousseirat.
A delicate diplomatic equation
In return, 602 Palestinian prisoners, including 50 life sentenced, must regain freedom, an exchange which fuels recurring criticism on the exorbitant price paid by Israel for the return of its nationals. One hundred and eight of them will be expelled from the Palestinian territories. “Ten years and five months of unimaginable suffering finally end”said the family of Mengistu, while in Tel Aviv, the “Place des Hatages” resonated cries of joy and crying.
But the pain remains long. This new exchange comes after the announcement of the death of Shiri Bibas, kidnapped with his two sons Ariel and Kfir, whose remains were delivered Thursday in disputed circumstances. Initially, only the return of the bodies of the two children had been confirmed, before Hamas recognized a “Possible error” and does not restore that of their mother. The Israeli army claims that the two boys were killed “With bare hands”as much as Hamas maintains that the Bibas family perished under bombing in November 2023.
Since January 19, 28 Israeli hostages, including four dead, have been returned in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian detainees. Hamas ensures that after the release of Hicham Al-Sayed, an Israeli Bédouin captive for almost ten years, only four deceased hostages remain to be handed over to Israel before the end of the first phase of the agreement, scheduled for March 1.
However, the future of the truce remains uncertain. The second phase of the agreement, which provides for the release of 33 Israeli hostages against 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, struggles to materialize. The indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are bothering, each camp accusing the other of raping the terms of the ceasefire.
In this climate of tensions, Hamas says it is ready to release “in one go” all the hostages still held in Gaza during the second phase of the agreement, but the discussions remain suspended on conditions that Tel Aviv considers unacceptable. An equation which, as exchanges follow one another, seems more and more difficult to resolve.
