(22 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nuseirat, Gaza Strip – 22 February 2025
++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
1. Wide of militants preparing to escort hostages
2. Mid of vehicles
3. Militants walking to stage
4. Zoom in on large Palestinian flag
5. Mid of militants on stage with hostage
6. Hostage being led to stage by militants
7. Various of hostages on stage (left to right) Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert
8. Various of hostages being led by militants to Red Cross vehicles
9. Mid of Red Cross vehicles
10. Red Cross vehicles leaving
STORYLINE:
Hamas handed over three more Israeli hostages to the Red Cross on Saturday in the latest exchange under a fragile ceasefire agreement.
In the central town of Nuseirat, three Israeli men in their 20s — Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, and Eliya Cohen — were posed alongside the fighters.
A beaming Omer Shem Tov blew kisses to the crowd, flashed the thumbs up, and even kissed the militant next to him on the head.
The three were put in Red Cross vehicles that then headed for Israel.
Earlier in the day, two other hostages were freed in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
A sixth hostage, 36-year-old Hisham al-Sayed, is also due to be released Saturday.
Cohen, Shem Tov and Wenkert were abducted by Hamas fighters at the Nova music festival in the October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.
During their release, they were brought out wearing fake army uniforms, though they were not soldiers when they were kidnapped
The latest release, to be followed by the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, is going ahead after tensions mounted over a grisly and heart-wrenching dispute triggered this week when Hamas initially handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys abducted by militants.
The remains that Hamas transferred with her sons’ bodies on Thursday were later determined to be those of an unidentified Palestinian woman.
In response, 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 small militant group believed to have been holding Bibas and her sons — the Palestinian Mujahedeen Brigades — said it handed over a second body.
On Saturday morning, Bibas’ family said Israeli forensic authorities had confirmed the remains were hers.
The six hostages being freed Saturday are the last living ones to be released under the first phase.
The new releases brought a moment of joy and relief for families, but with the ceasefire’s future uncertain, fears remain over the fate of the remaining hostages seized during the October 7 attack that killed 1,200 in Israel and ignited the war.
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