Hamas on Sunday condemned Israel’s decision to postpone the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The militant group says Israel’s claim that the hostages' handover ceremonies are “humiliating” was false and a pretext to evade Israel’s obligations under the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision “reflects a deliberate attempt to disrupt the agreement, represents a clear violation of its terms, and shows the occupation’s lack of reliability in implementing its obligations,” Ezzat El Rashq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said in a statement.
Israel said earlier it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners it had planned to free the day before until Hamas met its conditions, underscoring the fragility of the Gaza ceasefire accord.
Mr 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”.
Hamas said the ceremonies do not include any insult to the hostages, “but rather reflect the humane and dignified treatment of them”, adding that the “real insult” is what the Palestinian prisoners are subjected to during the release process.
The Palestinian group official cited the tying of hands of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees and their blindfolding and threatening them not to hold any celebrations for their release as examples of their humiliation at the hands of Israeli authorities.
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.
Eliya Cohen (27), Omer Shem Tov (22), and Omer Wenkert (23), all seized from the site of the Nova music festival in Hamas’ October 7th, 2023, attack on southern Israel, were handed over to the Red Cross on Saturday to be transported to Israeli forces.
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.
Tal Shoham (40) and Avera Mengistu (39) were released in southern Gaza’s Rafah earlier.
Hamas later handed over a sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed (36), to the Red Cross in Gaza City with no public ceremony.
The bodies of four dead Israeli hostages were to be released next week.
Elsewhere, tens of thousands of people attended a mass funeral for Hizbullah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Sunday, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli air strike in a blow to the Iranian-backed group.
Carrying pictures of Nasrallah and Hizbullah flags, supporters from Lebanon and other countries in the region filled the 55,000-seat Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium in the Hizbullah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.
The killing of Nasrallah, who led the Shia Muslim group through decades of conflict with Israel and oversaw its transformation into a military force with regional sway, was one of the opening salvos in an Israeli escalation that badly weakened Hizbullah.
The group’s current leader, Naim Qassem, whose remote address to the mourners was broadcast on screens from an undisclosed location, said Hizbullah remained “strong”.
Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in Lebanon’s south and east on Sunday morning and flew low over Beirut twice during the funeral. – Reuters
