A moment of joy and relief swiftly turned into shock when members of Kibbutz Be'eri in southern Israel watched on Saturday (February 8) the release of two hostages from their community, looking pale and thin.
Masked and armed Hamas gunmen led three Israeli hostages that have been held in Hamas captivity for 16 months to a stage in Gaza before handing them over to the Red Cross. The three men looked emaciated, pale and weak.
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Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, were both taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri during the cross-border Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. Another hostage who was released with them, Or Levy, was abducted from the Nova music festival.
They were paraded on stage by Palestinian militant group Hamas ahead of their release.
In exchange, Israel will release 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people and including 18 serving life sentences and 111 detained in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas.
Crowds of people gathered at the site, where the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) vehicles waited to collect the hostages and transport them to Israeli forces in Gaza, who will then take them into Israel.
(Production: Ilan Rosenberg, Avivit Delgoshen, Hussam Al Masri, Ikaba Koyi)