Hamas-led militants freed eight hostages on Thursday in the latest release since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took hold earlier this month. Israel was expected to release another 110 Palestinian prisoners.
The release was delayed by a chaotic scene in which a crowd of Palestinians surrounded and jeered at hostages as they were turned over to the Red Cross.
The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, whose October 7 2023 attack into Israel sparked the fighting.
It has held despite a dispute earlier this week over the sequence in which the hostages were released.
The first hostage, female Israeli soldier Agam Berger, was released in northern Gaza.
Hours later, a chaotic scene unfolded as thousands of people pressed around a handover site in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, in front of the destroyed home of killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Footage showed Arbel Yehoud, a 29-year-old hostage, looking stunned as she was led through the crowd by militants toward waiting Red Cross vehicles.
Hundreds of militants from Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group arrived with a convoy in a show of force, and thousands of people gathered to watch, some from the tilted rooftops of bombed-out buildings.
Many in the crowd shouted and surrounded Ms Yehoud as masked militants pushed people away and escorted her through.
Red Cross vehicles were delayed as they tried to drive away. The Israeli military later said the hostages had been transferred by Red Cross to Israeli forces inside Gaza.
The other two Israelis released on Thursday were Ms Yehoud and Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man. Five Thai nationals were freed, but were not been officially identified.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “shocking” scene” and called on international mediators to prevent similar events in the future.
Hamas had earlier handed Ms Berger, 20, to the Red Cross after parading her in front of a crowd in the heavily destroyed urban refugee camp of Jabaliya in northern Gaza.
The Israeli government later released footage of Ms Berger hugging and crying with her parents.
She was among five young, female soldiers abducted in the October 7 attack. The other four were released on Saturday.
People cheered, clapped and whistled at a square in Tel Aviv where supporters of the hostages watched Ms Berger’s handover on big screens next to a large clock that has counted the days the hostages have been in captivity.
Some held signs saying: “Agam we’re waiting for you at home.”
A number of foreign workers were taken captive along with dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers during Hamas’ attack.
Twenty-three Thais were among more than 100 hostages released during a week-long ceasefire in November 2023. Israel says eight Thais remain in captivity, two of whom are believed to be dead.
Of the people set to be released from prisons in Israel, 30 are serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis.
Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent former militant leader and theatre director who took part in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021 before being rearrested days later, is also among those set to be released.
Israel said Ms Yehoud was supposed to have been freed Saturday and delayed the opening of crossings to northern Gaza when she was not.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the ceasefire after a year of tough negotiations, resolved the dispute with an agreement that Ms Yehoud would be released on Thursday.
Another three hostages, all men, are set to be freed on Saturday along with dozens more Palestinian prisoners.
On Monday, Israel began allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, the most heavily destroyed part of the territory, and hundreds of thousands streamed back. Many found only mounds of rubble where their homes had been.
Hamas started the war when it sent thousands of fighters storming into Israel. The militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250.
Israel’s ensuing air and ground war among the deadliest and most destructive in decades. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were militants.
