Hamas handed over two Israeli hostages to the Red Cross. Tal Shoham and Averu Mengistu were paraded on stage before they were handed over to Red Cross officials. Israel accused Hamas of \”a very serious violation\” of the ceasefire; which began on January 19 and will expire early March. One of the bodies released of the four hostages was not of Shiri Bibas – the mother of the two Bibas children. However, the body was returned to Israel and testing confirmed that it is the mother. Since the October 7 attack that snowballed the war, 1215 people in Israel have died. Israel’s retaliatory attack has resulted in the deaths of 48,319 people in Gaza according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable. Israel will release 600 Palestinian prisoners taken from Gaza since October 7. The current hostage-prisoner exchange by Hamas and Israel will be the final one in the first phase of the truce deal. The six Israelis who are set to be freed are: Eliya Cohen,. Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed, Tal Shohlam and. Avera MengistU.
