From the moment they stepped from the Hamas vehicle, to be seen alive for the first time in 15 and a half months, the three hostages were clearly gaunt and in poor health.

Reports in Israel say they have lost up to 30% of their body weight and they are in a bad medical condition.

Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy looked much frailer than any of the hostages released previously during this phase of the ceasefire. Their time in captivity has obviously been punishing.

Gaza ceasefire latest

Like previous hostage releases, they were humiliatingly paraded on stage but this time interviewed in front of the crowd, in a propaganda stunt for Hamas.

Eli Sharabi said he was looking forward to seeing his wife Lianne and two daughters again – he didn’t know that all three of them had been killed on 7 October.

His brother Yossi was also taken hostage but died last year in Gaza.

Israeli media is reporting that Or Levi was unaware his wife had been killed at the Nova music festival.

It has all caused a real feeling of shock and anger in Israel tonight and a new urgency to get all of the hostages home as quickly as possible.

Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted angrily, promising a response. The Israeli president has described it as a crime against humanity and the IDF point man for the hostages has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement.

Any action by the Israeli government could threaten the ceasefire and therefore the release of more hostages. As the hostage families forum and Israel’s president have said, the most important thing is freeing all the captives and getting them home.

Many of the Palestinian prisoners are also returning home looking painfully thin and with stories of being beaten in detention. One prisoner had to be carried off the Red Cross bus by a medic from the Palestinian Red Crescent earlier today.

The Palestinian prisoners released today say they were forced to watch a video of the destruction of Gaza before they were freed.

But there has been a shift in tone and mood after today’s events and it’s unclear what happens next.

A released Israeli hostage told a Hamas crowd he hoped to see his wife and daughters after his release – suggesting he did not know they had been killed on 7 October.

Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy were the latest hostages freed this morning in front of a crowd of heavily armed fighters.

Both Mr Ami, 56, and Mr Sharabi, 52, were taken from Kibbutz Be’eri during the 7 October attack. Mr Levy, 34, was abducted from the Nova music festival.

It was not known if Mr Sharabi was aware his wife and children had been killed by Hamas over a year ago. His Bristol-born wife Lianne Sharabi, along with their children 16-year-old Noiya and 13-year-old Yahel, were killed while Mr Sharabi and his brother Yossi were taken hostage.

Yossi was later killed while in captivity.

Mr Sharabi was paraded on a podium by armed Hamas personnel and interviewed before his release earlier today.

In one of his answers, which was clearly given under duress, he said he was hoping to see his wife and daughters very soon, according to translations provided by our US partner NBC News.

Mr Sharabi also told the crowd he was aware of his brother’s death and said he was “very angry” with the Israeli government.

All three hostages made similar critical comments about Israel while on stage with the armed men.

The comments came as Stephen Brisley, Mr Sharabi’s brother-in-law, told Sky News presenter Anna Jones this morning that he wasn’t sure if he had found out about his family’s fate.

“All the way through this, we’ve wondered whether what’s kept him going is the prospect of being reunited with Lianne and the girls,” he said.

He described his brother-in-law as looking “skinny” and “gaunt”.

“You could see how skinny he is, how pale he is. You wonder how much daylight he’s seen – very gaunt face,” he said.

“I think what struck me the most is that Eli has a very happy face, he smiles with his whole face and smiles with his eyes and it was the lack of light in his eyes that I think is one of the most distressing parts of it.”

Photos after his release showed Mr Sharabi reuniting with his wider family.

Gaza ceasefire latest: Live updates as Hamas releases three Israeli hostages

Mr Brisley added: “You don’t know what the last 491 days have done to him, but it’s clearly had an incredible impact on him, and it was written all over his face.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We will not accept the shocking scenes that we saw today.”

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In return for the captives’ release, 183 Palestinian prisoners were released – some of which were convicted of being involved in attacks that killed dozens of people.

A bus carrying several dozen Palestinian prisoners from Israel’s Ofer prison arrived in the occupied West Bank, where their families and friends were waiting.

Sky News Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall said some of the prisoners also looked to be in a “very bad condition”.

And in a statement later on Saturday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “dismayed to see his (Mr Sharabi’s) frail condition and the circumstances of his release”.

He added: “Having met his relatives I appreciate the deep pain they have endured and my thoughts are with them.

“We must continue to see all the hostages freed – these people were ripped away from their lives in the most brutal circumstances and held in appalling conditions.

The ceasefire must hold and all efforts need to focus on full implementation of the remaining phases. This includes the return of further hostages, the continued increase of aid into Gaza and securing lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Some 18 Israeli hostages and more than 550 Palestinian prisoners have been freed since the ceasefire began on 19 January.

Under the deal, 33 Israeli hostages are to be released in an initial stage in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Negotiations on a second phase of the deal began this week. It is aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing to a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation to end the war.

It is feared US President Donald Trump’s proposal to move the Palestinian population out of Gaza so the US could take over could complicate the second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire.

Hamas’s cross-border attack into Israel saw around 1,200 Israelis killed and around 250 people taken hostage.

Since then Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 47,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Europe’s far-right political leaders have praised Donald Trump and said they wanted to “Make Europe Great Again” as they met in Madrid.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italy’s deputy premier Matteo Salvini, French National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen and Netherlands’ PVV party founder Geert Wilders were among those at the gathering organised by Spanish far-right party, Vox.

Referring to what he called “the Trump tornado”, Mr Orban said the Republican candidate’s victory in November’s US presidential election and subsequent return to the White House had “changed the world in just a few weeks… yesterday we were heretics, today we’re mainstream”.

Cheered by around 2,000 supporters waving Spanish flags, speakers railed against frequent right-wing targets such as immigration, leftists, migrant rescue NGOs, and “wokeism”.

The names of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were jeered loudly.

There were regular calls for a new “Reconquista”, a reference to the Medieval re-conquest of Muslim-controlled parts of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian kingdoms.

As for Mr Trump’s threat to place high tariffs on European imports, Mr Salvini and Vox president Santiago Abascal downplayed the danger and said EU taxes, such as the Green Deal, and regulations are a bigger risk to Europe’s prosperity.

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Germany’s election later this month represented a “historic opportunity”, Mr Salvini said, as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is polling in second place, behind centre-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s Union bloc.

Mr Salvini said Germany, which he called “the engine of Europe” had “come to a halt in the face of the most disastrous government [led by Olaf Scholz] of the post-war period”.

The opening speech, by former Estonian finance minister Martin Helme was interrupted by a topless activist from feminist group Femen chanting “not one step back against fascism” in Spanish before she was ejected.

Defending Europe’s borders against illegal immigration was another topic touched on by every speaker at the two-day event, even though irregular border crossings into the European Union fell sharply in 2024, according to data collected by the bloc’s border control agency Frontex.

Ms Le Pen said the European leaders at the gathering, whose Patriots for Europe group has 84 seats in the European Parliament, “are the only ones that can talk with the new Trump administration”.

The group polled a combined 19 million votes in May’s European elections, but some of the EU’s most influential parties in that camp – such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, AfD and Poland’s Law and Justice – have refused to join.

Spain’s ruling Socialist Party said in a statement it rejected what it described as a “coven of ultras”, adding: “They won’t succeed in making their black-and-white world view prevail in this country”.