Jerusalem:
Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday handed over three more Israeli hostages, after nearly 500 days of captivity, as part of the ongoing ceasefire deal with Israel. The gaunt appearances of three hostages — Eli Sharabi, Or Levi and Ohad Ben Ami — shocked Israelis, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the Hamas officials as “monsters” and pledging to destroy the group.
Before their release, three men were made to participate in a Hamas-directed handover ceremony, which included hostages answering questions posed by a masked man as fighters armed with automatic rifles stood on each side. During the ceremony broadcast live, three men appeared thin, weak and pale, in worse condition than the 18 other hostages already freed under the truce agreed in January after 15 months of war.
“He looked like a skeleton, it was awful to see,” Ohad Ben Ami’s mother-in-law, Michal Cohen, told Channel 13 News as she watched the handover ceremony at home.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the sight of the frail hostages was shocking and would be addressed. “We will eliminate Hamas, and we will return our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a video statement, denouncing the militants as “monsters” after the handover during which the three emaciated men were compelled to speak on stage.
Later, Israel’s official social media handles released before and after photographs of the three men, and said, “There are no words.”
There are no words. pic.twitter.com/y8Osk7jPp5
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) February 8, 2025
‘Poor Medical Health’
After being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, the hostages were then driven to Israeli forces and into Israel, where they had tearful reunions with family members, and were flown to hospitals.
Ohad Ben Ami, who was taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, has returned home from Gaza in a “severe nutritional state.”
“In the initial medical assessment conducted, it is evident that Ohad returned in a severe nutritional state and had lost a significant amount of his body weight,” Gil Fire, deputy director at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv said, adding Ben Ami had shown he was “resilient in spirit”.
The other two men Or Levy and Eli Sharabi returned in “poor” medical condition, the hospital where they are receiving care said.
“The consequences of 491 long days in captivity are evident on the two returnees who arrived today and their medical condition is poor. This is the fourth time in the current framework that we have received returnees and the situation is more serious this time,” Yael Frenkel Nir, the director of Sheba Hospital, told reporters.
Eli Sharabi was also taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri with Ohad Ben Ami, while Or Levy was abducted that day from the Nova music festival.
Hamas on Saturday released three more Israeli hostages, after nearly 500 days of captivity, to the humanitarian aid organisation Red Cross. The three hostages — Eli Sharabi, Or Levi and Ohad Ben Ami — were released as part of the ongoing ceasefire deal with Israel.
Emotional Reunions
The three men had their intimate family reunions later, away from the media spotlight but were filmed and photographed by the Israeli authorities. “I left XXL and came back medium,” joked the 56-year-old, who, according to doctors at the hospital, had lost a significant amount of weight in captivity.
Extremely thin Ohad Ben Ami found the strength to run toward his daughters, even cracking a joke during their emotional reunion, filled with both joy and tears.
“We missed you so much,” the mother of Or Levy, Geula, said as she hugged her son.
But some hostages face a painful return. Sharabi’s two teenage daughters and his British-born wife were killed in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where one in 10 residents was killed. Israel’s Channel 12 said Sharabi had not been told about their deaths and asked where they were when he arrived.
Draped in an Israeli flag, Sharabi was welcomed with tears at Sheba Hospital in Ramat Gan by his two sisters and brother, his head covered with a talith, the Jewish prayer shawl. The reunion of Levy with his family was a sober one, marked by long embraces and crying.
Prisoner Swap
In exchange for the hostages’ release, Israel freed 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people, as well as 111 detained in Gaza during the war.
Of those released, 41 returned to the West Bank city of Ramallah, four were released in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, 131 were sent to Gaza and seven were deported to Egypt. However, their families were forbidden from celebrating their return by Israeli forces.
The Israeli military in a statement said it “conveyed messages that celebrations and processions in support of terrorism are prohibited during the release of the terrorists”.
In Ramallah, one prisoner was helped off the bus in the arms of a medic while another held his oxygen bottle. Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said that seven of the freed prisoners were transferred to hospital.
“All the prisoners who were released today are in need of medical care, treatment and examinations as a result of the brutality they were subjected to during the past months,” he added.