Hamas released three Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for 183 Palestinians jailed by Israel, in a staged handover where rifle-toting Hamas fighters prodded their gaunt captives to give short speeches, effectively at gunpoint, thanking the militants who had held them captive for 16 months.
The events made an already tenuous cease-fire more fragile, possibly endangering the next steps in the truce agreement. Israel is scheduled to pull back from part of Gaza on Sunday to allow Palestinians there to move more freely, but has threatened to take unspecified action in response to what it says are Hamas violations of the cease-fire.
And talks on the second phase of the truce deal are supposed to be advancing now, amid deep consternation in the Arab world over President Trump’s proposal to move more than two million Gazans out of the enclave and have the United States take over the territory.
For Hamas, the heavily choreographed hostage handover reinforced the group’s message that, despite a devastating war in the Gaza Strip that killed thousands of its members and much of its leadership, the group remains in power there, defying Israeli leaders’ vow to wipe it out.
In a statement on the hostage release, Hamas said, “This confirms that our people and their resistance have the upper hand.”
But if Hamas saw the scene in the city of Deir al-Balah as propaganda for its claim to have treated its captives benevolently, it had the opposite effect in Israel, where many people found the images almost unbearable. Three frail, painfully thin hostages were paraded on a stage before a crowd, each holding a Hamas-issued “release certificate,” and made to mouth words written for them.
Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, invoked the defining Jewish trauma of the last century, writing on social media, “The Israeli hostages look like Holocaust survivors.”
The spectacle on Saturday was sure to reinforce pressure from some Israelis for the government to find a way to recover all of the remaining hostages in Gaza. For others, it will bolster the view that Israel should resume the war after the first six-week phase of the cease-fire expires on March 2, rather than negotiate a long-term peace.
What happens next is far from certain.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after the releases on Saturday that he had ordered the Israeli authorities to “take appropriate action” over violations of the cease-fire, but did not specify what those actions might be.
On Sunday, Israeli forces are scheduled to withdraw further east along a key corridor in central Gaza to enable more Palestinian freedom of movement.
The three Israelis released Saturday by Hamas — Eli Sharabi, 52; Or Levy, 34; and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 — were among about 250 people abducted during the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that touched off the war. About 75 have not been returned, and roughly half are believed to be dead.
The cease-fire deal calls for the release over six weeks of 25 living hostages and the bodies of eight others who were killed, in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinians held by Israel. The Palestinian prisoners include people detained in Gaza during the war but never charged with a crime and others serving life prison sentences for violent crimes.
So far, 16 living hostages and about 550 Palestinian prisoners have been released.
Palestinian prisoners, like Israeli hostages, have returned home having lost substantial amounts of weight. And like the hostages, some have recounted brutal mistreatment by those who held them.
Hamas and Israel are supposed to be negotiating terms for the second phase of the truce, which would end the war and free the remaining hostages. But it is not clear that the two sides can come to an agreement.
Israel has vowed not to end the war if it leaves Hamas, which took control of Gaza in 2007, still in charge there. Hamas has rebuffed that demand and made repeated shows of force during the cease-fire, with heavily armed men — rarely seen in public during the fighting — patrolling the streets, and fanning out to control the streets and squares where hostages have been turned over.
The three Israelis freed on Saturday were taken to hospitals in central Israel to receive medical care and be reunited with loved ones. The freed Palestinians were taken to Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, or to Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and in both locations, some were taken to hospitals.
In Ramallah, a huge crowd greeted the arrival of a Red Cross bus carrying freed prisoners, who are seen by many Palestinians as valiant fighters against an occupying enemy. At least some were convicted of involvement in deadly attacks against Israelis, who view them as terrorists.
Israeli forces raided the West Bank family homes of at least four of men before their release, warning their relatives not to celebrate their freedom. Israel has been particularly assertive in suppressing celebrations for detainees released under the current cease-fire, fearing that they may bolster the popularity of Hamas.
One of the prisoners whose family home was raided was Jamal Tawil, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, who had been imprisoned multiple times on accusations that included planning bombings against Israel. He was taken directly to a hospital in Ramallah after his release.
“He is struggling to breathe and is very weak,” said his daughter, Bushra Tawil, a journalist and activist who was released in an earlier exchange last month. “I was shocked when I saw him — he had been beaten on the head and other parts of his body until the very last moments before his release.”
She said her family had been threatened with arrest if they publicly celebrated his return.
The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment on her allegations.
Another Palestinian whose home on the West Bank was raided, Shadi Barghouti, was serving a 27-year sentence for planning or participating in attacks, according to the Israeli Justice Ministry. Family members said his father, Fakhri Barghouti, 70, was beaten during the raid.
The Barghoutis, father and son, had overlapped in prison. The elder was convicted in the 1978 killing of an Israeli, but released in a 2011 prisoner deal with Hamas. Fakhri Barghouti was waiting at the Ramallah Cultural Palace when his son arrived on Saturday — the first time they had met outside of prison since 1978. They were both tearful, but smiling, as Shadi Barghouti knelt upon seeing his father.
Another released Hamas militant, Iyad Abu Shkhaydem, now 50, had been serving 18 life sentences, in part for planning the 2004 bombings of two buses in Beersheba, in central Israel, that killed 16 people.
In Israel, the government published footage of Mr. Levy embracing his parents and brother as they met for the first time since he was taken hostage.
“My soul, we missed you so much,” his mother could be heard saying.
In the Israeli town of Be’eri, where Mr. Ben Ami and Mr. Sharabi were both abducted, residents gathered in the local pub to watch the release live on television, said Haim Jelin, a resident and former Israeli lawmaker.
“People were joyous and shouting as they were coming out of the car. But as soon as we saw them, there was total silence. People started to cry,” Mr. Jelin said in an interview. “It was gut-wrenching.”
The Hostage Families Forum, which represents relatives of the captives, issued a swift statement condemning the “distressing images” from the handover, and called for the immediate release of the remaining captives.
“Everyone must be brought home, down to the last hostage.”
Reporting was contributed by Lara Jakes from Jerusalem; Fatima AbdulKarim from Ramallah, West Bank; and Richard Pérez-Peña.