Palestinian extremist group Hamas has turned over two more hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza under a fragile ceasefire deal with Israel, according to a live broadcast of the handover ceremony on Saturday.
The two men, Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu, were handed over in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, with four more hostages to be freed later on Saturday as part of the latest hostages-for-prisoners swap in the conflict.
Masked and armed Hamas fighters guarded a stage in Rafah where Shoham was forced to say a few words before they were handed over to Red Cross workers.
Crowds watched on amid loud music and Palestinian flags, standing between buildings that were reduced to ruins during more than 16 months of war.
The other four hostages, Omer Shem-Tov, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert, and Hisham al-Sayed, are set to be handed over in Nuseirat in central Gaza.
