Israeli hostage kisses his Hamas captive on the head as he and two other prisoners are handed over in highly emotional public ceremony

A traumatised Israeli hostage has today been seen kissing a Hamas fighter on the head as he and two other prisoners were handed over in an emotionally charged ceremony, hours after two more were given to Israeli officials.

In unprecedented scenes, Omer Shem Tov, 22, was seen planting a kiss on the head of a gun-wielding masked terrorist at the baroque ceremony in Nuseirat, central Gaza, as he stood by fellow hostages Eliya Cohen, 27, and Omer Wenkert, 23.

All three, who were seen laughing, smiling and waving at the gathered crowd, were abducted from the Nova festival during Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack. Cheers were heard in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square as thousands watched a livestream of the ceremony.

They are now in the IDF’s hands, and are now back in Israel.

Omer Shem Tov’s father, Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli broadcasters that the family’s mission of getting him home was finally complete ‘after 505 days of worry, fear and longing.’

Omer’s grandmother, Sara, told Channel 12 that it wasn’t out of character to be so jovial: ‘That’s Omer. He gets on with everyone. Even Hamas… They love him even there.’

It came after Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were today handed over to the Red Cross, after being paraded on stage by masked gunmen.

The sixth and final hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, will be handed over by Hamas without any ceremony ‘out of respect for his family’, though the terror group did not say when he would be released.

Al-Sayed, a Palestinian Israeli citizen of Bedouin descent, was kidnapped while crossing the border into Gaza in 2014. Human Rights Watch said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and a personality disorder.

Hamas released a video of the man in June 2022 showing him lying in a cot with an oxygen mask.

Both Tal and Avera are now in Israel, the country’s military and intelligence services have said, with Hamas adding in a separate statement that it was ready to move to the second, more precarious, phase of the ceasefire deal.

A joint statement between the IDF and the ISA reads: ‘They are currently on their way to an initial reception point in southern Israel, where they will be reunited with members of their families.

‘The IDF is prepared to receive additional hostages who are due to be transferred to the Red Cross in the near future.’

In Tel Aviv, hundreds gathered at a site known as ‘Hostages Square’ reacted with applause, some appearing to weep, as they watched a broadcast of the release.

It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed retribution after what he called ‘a cruel and malicious violation’ of the agreement by misidentifying bodies.

The family of Shiri Bibas said Israeli forensic authorities had confirmed the remains released overnight are those of the Israeli mother, in spite of the IDF’s claims on Thursday night that the remains belonged to an unidentified person.

Israeli authorities said they had positively identified the bodies of Bibas’s two young sons, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, and of Oded Lifshitz, but that the fourth body was an unidentified woman from Gaza.

However, amid the already tense hostage exchange, the IDF has accused Hamas of murdering siblings Ariel and Kfir ‘with their bare hands’.

‘For 16 months we sought certainty, and now that it’s here, it brings no comfort, though we hope it marks the beginning of closure,’ the Bibas family said.

The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy has called Hamas’s failure to return the right body of an Israeli hostage ‘sick and abhorrent’.

Israel said its tests determined that the hostages had been killed by their captors. Hamas has claimed Lifshitz and the members of the Bibas family were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

Hamas said it would ‘conduct a thorough review’ of information regarding the body and suggested that Israeli bombing of the area where hostages were held might have caused a mix-up of remains.

The group’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it would go ahead with the release of the six Israeli hostages planned for Saturday.

The dispute over the body’s identity raised new doubt about the ceasefire deal, which has paused over 15 months of war but is nearing the end of its first phase.

Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal, are likely to be even more difficult.

On Saturday morning, hundreds of people gathered in a rainy Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip as Hamas prepared to release the hostages.

Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli, had been held in Gaza since entering on his own in 2014.

Watching the handover on Israeli media, Mengistu’s family broke out into a Hebrew song, ‘Here is the Light,’ as they saw him for the first time in more than a decade.

His family said in a statement via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum:

‘Our family has endured 10 years and five months of unimaginable suffering. During this time, there have been continuous efforts to secure his return, with prayers and pleas, some silent, that remained unanswered until today.

‘In these moments, we gather in anxious anticipation of the return of our beloved son, brother, and uncle Avera.

‘We ask that these moments be respected, and that we be granted the peace and rest we so desperately need,’

Shoham, from the northern Israeli village of Ma’ale Tzviya, was visiting his wife’s family in Kibbutz Be’eri when Hamas militants stormed into the community during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

The family of Tal Shoham told Israeli media they were ‘starting to breathe again’ after seeing him on the stage. Shoham’s wife, two young children, and three other relatives who had been abducted with him were freed in a November 2023 exchange.

The others to be freed include Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; and Omer Wenkert, 23.

All three were abducted from a music festival during the Oct. 7 attack. Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who also crossed into Gaza on his own years ago, is also to be returned to Israel as part of the deal.

More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange, the Palestinian prisoners media office said Friday.

The prisoners set for release include 50 serving life sentences, 60 with long sentences, 47 who were released under a previous hostage-for-prisoner exchange and 445 prisoners from Gaza arrested since the war began.

Hamas has said it will also release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire.

If that plan is carried out, Hamas would retain about 60 hostages.

Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.

Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, says he’s committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.

His idea has been welcomed by Netanyahu but universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries.

Trump said Friday that he was ‘a little surprised’ by rejections of the proposal by Egypt and Jordan and that he would not impose it.

‘I’ll tell you, the way to do it is my plan. I think that’s the plan that really works. But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it,’ Trump said in a Fox News interview.

Israel’s military offensive killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble. At its height, the war displaced 90% of Gaza’s population.

Many have returned to their homes to find nothing left and no way of rebuilding.