Israel says it is postponing release of Palestinian prisoners

By James Mackenzie and Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Sunday it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners it had planned to free the day before until militant group Hamas met its conditions, underscoring the fragility of the Gaza ceasefire accord.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a statement in the early hours of Sunday saying that Israel was waiting to deliver the 620 Palestinian prisoners and detainees "until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies."

That was a reference to recent handovers by Hamas that U.N. officials have said went against international law because they were not respectful.

Hamas has made hostages appear on stage in front of crowds and sometimes speak before they were handed over. Coffins with hostage remains have also been carried through crowds.

Israel's announcement, which also accused Hamas of repeatedly violating the month-old ceasefire, came after the Palestinian militant group on Saturday handed over six hostages from Gaza as part of an exchange arranged under the truce.

The six hostages freed on Saturday were the last living Israeli captives due to be handed over during the first phase of the ceasefire. The bodies of four dead Israeli hostages were to be released next week.

It was not clear if Israel wanted assurances on that release or other hostage releases.

After the six hostages arrived back in Israel, Hamas released a video in which two other hostages, Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, were seen watching one of the handovers earlier on Saturday.

Hamas spokesperson Abdul Latif Al-Qanou earlier accused Israel of violating the ceasefire as Saturday elapsed without the release of Palestinians as planned.

Israel and Hamas have frequently accused each other of violations since the ceasefire started on January 19 but it has so far continued to hold. Hamas at one stage said it would stop handing over hostages because of alleged Israeli breaches.

Israelis Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, all seized in Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, were handed over on Saturday in central Gaza to the Red Cross.

Dozens of militants stood guard in a crowd that had gathered to watch the handover, as masked Hamas men armed with automatic rifles stood on each side of the three men, who appeared thin and pale, as they were made to wave from the stage.

Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were earlier released in southern Gaza.

Hamas rejected criticism of the handover events on Saturday, describing them as a solemn show of Palestinian unity. It handed over a sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed, a 36-year-old Arab citizen of Israel, to the Red Cross in Gaza City without a public ceremony.

Al-Sayed and Mengistu had been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza of their own accord around a decade ago. Shoham was abducted from Kibbutz Be'eri along with his wife and two children, who were freed in a brief truce in November 2023.

Sixty-three more captives, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, remain in Gaza and are due to be released under a three-phase ceasefire deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

Shem Tov embraced his parents tightly, laughing and crying. "How I dreamt of this," he said in a video distributed by the Israeli military.

TALKS ON NEXT PHASE

The fragile truce in the war between Israel and Hamas militants was also threatened by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday as that of Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped with her two young sons and her husband in Hamas' 2023 attack.

Late on Friday, Hamas handed over another body, which her family said had been confirmed to be hers.

The ceasefire has brought a pause in the fighting, but prospects of a definitive end to the war remain unclear.

Both sides have said they intend to start talks on a second stage, which mediators say aims to agree the return of all remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops.

The war started when Hamas-led militants launched a cross-border attack on Israeli communities that killed 1,200 and took 251 hostages, according to Israel.

The Israeli retaliatory offensive has killed at least 48,000 people, the Palestinian health authorities say, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble, leaving some hundreds of thousands in makeshift shelters and dependent on aid trucks.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Hatem Maher, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jaida Taha in Cairo, Jana Choukeir in Dubai and Rami Amichay in Tel Aviv; Writing by James Mackenzie and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)