The families of around 600 prisoners remained after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Saturday that he would delay his release.
In announcing the delay, Netanyahu cited “repeated violations of Hamas, including rituals that humiliate our hostages and the ironic exploitation of hostages for propaganda purposes.”
Hamas has been criticized for holding a choreographed ceremony every time they return hostages to Israel.
Netanyahu described the batch of Palestinian prisoners and detainees as “until the release of the next hostage is guaranteed, and without a humiliating ritual.”
According to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, there are 63 hostages remaining in Gaza, of which 27 are estimated to be alive. No arrangements have been made for release yet.
Hamas condemned the delay and called the accusations surrounding the ritual “a flimsy pretext aimed at avoiding the obligation to agree.”
It added that delays have exposed the ongoing ceasefire agreement “in danger,” urging the US and other international partners to pressure the Palestinians detained in Israel to free them.
The release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees – the largest group released under the ceasefire agreement – was part of the final prisoner residence exchange in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. It would have included 445 detainees who were not sentenced to time in prison, as well as 24 women and children.
Over 400 of these prisoners were doomed to Gaza. Gaza was waiting with a cold that his family would bite to accept their loved ones.
After traveling with her son and stepfather, Asia Carrel Feiyad, who arrived a day earlier to see her husband, was waiting with her son anxiously in a bus shelter.
“Stress killed us,” Fayyad told the NBC News Crew. “We can’t wait any longer. We have lost all hope. We have been waiting since yesterday and arrived yesterday to meet early. We have been killing our joy, I’m really afraid to see us only tomorrow or after tomorrow.”
The Palestinian Prisoners Club has been called an Israeli decision to delay the release of more than 600 Palestinians in the form of “organized terrorism against prisoners and their families.”
Many Red Cross vehicles, including buses, were waiting outside prisons on Saturday in the West Bank of Israeli-occupied.
The first phase of the ceasefire comes from the end of March 1, and the latest delays have become a key issue for contracts as Phase 2 is still uncertain.
A ceasefire contract has been concluded despite many set-ups. Hamas accused Israel of blocking aid in Gaza, but accused Hamas of performing a humiliating ritual during the release of hostages.
Last week, Hamas claimed he had delivered a ffin to Israel and carried the ruins of hostage Siri Vivas. The Israeli Defense Forces later said the tests showed that the body belonged to someone else.
The incident sparked rage from Israeli officials, and the IDF called it a “very serious violation” of the ceasefire. Hamas called it a mistake, saying that when Israeli airstrikes hit, Vivas’s relics might be “mixed” with others.
Hamas returned another human body to Israel early on Saturday, confirming it belongs to Vivas.
