Three Israelis and five Thai nationals were released Thursday amid chaotic scenes in Gaza in the third exchange of its kind since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect this month.
In exchange, Israel was to release 110 Palestinian prisoners later in the day, including some 30 serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu however, said in protest at the chaos of the handover that the move had been postponed until the "safe release" of the hostages was secured.
Israeli soldier Agam Berger waved to the crowd from a stage in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, but was first brought to the scene by armed fighters in Khan Younis, then handed over to the Red Cross, and then handed over to the Israeli army.
The 20-year-old woman was abducted on 7 October 2023 from the Nahal Oz military base on the border with Gaza when Hamas fighters invaded southern Israel.
Berger worked as an observer at the base. According to the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons, she had only taken the position two days before the attack.
Hours after her release, a chaotic scene unfolded in which a second Israeli hostage, Arbel Yehuda, looked stunned as masked gunmen rushed her through the screaming crowd. Hundreds of Hamas fighters gathered to watch the exchange, some of them from the sloping rooftops of bombed-out buildings.
Netanyahu described the scene as "shocking" and asked international mediators to ensure the hostages' safety in future releases.
Eighty-year-old Gadi Moses and twenty-nine-year-old Arbel Yehuda, both kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, embraced in the presence of masked gunmen in black uniforms at another exchange site in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a video released by Hamas ally Islamic Jihad showed.
A spokesman for the group's armed wing told Telegram that "completed the procedure for the transfer of the two Israeli hostages".
An Israeli official told Reuters that the three hostages were expected to be taken to three different hospitals in Israel, although that could change depending on their immediate check-up by doctors upon arrival.
Israelis have begun to gather in the so-called Hostage Square, a central square in Tel Aviv that has become the focal point of efforts to campaign on behalf of hostages held in Gaza.

The names of the Thai hostages - presumably agricultural workers - who were taken hostage at their workplaces during the Hamas attack on 7 October were also released.
Their names are Watchara Sriuan, Bannawat Seatho, Sathian Suwannakham, Pongsak Tanna and Surasak Lamnau.
The Thai government has said that a total of six of its citizens are being held captive in Gaza, while the whereabouts of Nattapong Pinto remain unknown. The other two Thai hostages are presumed dead.
The names of all the prisoners who were to be released from their sentences in Israel are not known, but they include 32 people with life sentences and 30 women and children.
Zakaria Zubeidi, a former prominent militant leader and theatre director who was involved in a dramatic jailbreak in 2021, has been identified as one of the people to be released.
Three Israeli civilians and four soldiers - all women - have so far been released under the ceasefire reached this month after a year of painstaking negotiations brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, which began on 19 January. In return, Israel has released 290 Palestinian convicts and detainees.
More than 250 hostages were taken in Israel in a Hamas attack.
About half were released the following month during the only previous ceasefire, and others were found dead or alive during Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and turned the small coastal enclave into a wasteland of rubble.
Israel still lists 90 prisoners in Gaza and has declared approximately 30 dead in absentia.
On Saturday, the Israeli government said a fourth hostage release involving three men was due to take place.
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