Hamas names 6 captives set for release, raps Netanyahu’s threat over Shiri Bibas as PR stunt

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has announced the names of six Israeli captives, who are set to be released on Saturday as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. 

In a statement on Friday, the group said Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem-Tov, Omer Wenkert, Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed will be released.

More than 600 Palestinian prisoners are also set to be released  in return for the Israeli captives as part of the exchange procedure.

Announcing the pending development, the Information Office of Palestinian Prisoners said the release would mark the seventh phase of the first round of the exchange process.

Among the Palestinian prisoners set for release, 50 have been serving life sentences, while 60 were sentenced to long-term imprisonment.

Additionally, 47 of the detainees were previously released under the 2011 "Wafa al-Ahrar" exchange deal -- which featured release of Israeli trooper Gilad Shalit -- but were later re-arrested by Israeli forces.

As many as 445 of the Palestinian prisoners are residents of the Gaza Strip, who were detained following the launch of the Israeli genocidal war.

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Netanyahu’s ‘PR stunt’ over Shiri Bibas's remains

The exchange comes as the Israeli military claimed earlier that one of the four bodies handed over on Thursday by Hamas as part of an ongoing exchange process between the two sides, “is not” that of Zionist captive Shiri Bibas.

The military made the allegations on Friday, a day after the Gaza Strip-based resistance movement handed over the four bodies to the regime.

It claimed that the remains ascribed to Shiri were "anonymous" and demanded that the group return, what it called, “the correct body.”

In response, Hamas issued a statement, rejecting the claims and denouncing related threats made by the regime’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as PR stunt.

The movement asserted its commitment to the terms of the exchange agreement and emphasized that it had no interest in withholding any bodies.

Hamas noted that it was investigating the matter after being informed of the Israeli claims by mediators, saying the body had been mixed with other human remains after a deadly Israeli air raid.

Hamas said Shiri Bibas’s body was "turned into pieces after apparently being mixed with other bodies under the rubble" as it blasted Israel for being behind the attack that killed Shiri and her two young sons.

It further called on Tel Aviv to return the body that it claims belongs to a Palestinian woman killed in Israeli airstrikes.

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Observers say, while Hamas has reaffirmed its commitment to fulfilling its obligations in the exchange process, the regime’s latest accusations threaten to complicate delicate relevant negotiations.

The mediators facilitating implementation of the deal are expected to receive the results of Hamas’ internal investigation into the so-called body mix-up in the coming days.

Shiri Bibas was among 240 Zionists, who were ensnared by Gaza’s resistance movements during a daring retaliatory operation targeting the occupied Palestinian territories on October 7, 2023.

The regime responded to the operation by bringing Gaza under a war of genocide that lasted for more than 15 months, killing more than 48,300 Palestinians, including those who have been killed since January during incessant Israeli violations of a ceasefire agreement that is expected to end the brutal war.

Hamas’s military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, has previously released video footage of Israeli captives admitting that Israeli forces had killed the captives’ family members in Gaza during indiscriminate bombings of the coastal sliver throughout the warfare.

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