TEHRAN, February 22 (MNA) – Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has initiated the process of handing over six Israeli captives in the seventh round of exchanging prisoners with the occupying regime as part of the recent ceasefire agreement.The Gaza-based movement handed over the six Israeli prisoners to the International Red Cross in the southern city of Rafah on Saturday, in the seventh batch of the first phase of the ceasefire deal clinched in mid-January, according to Press TV The first handover, including two Israeli prisoners, took place in Rafah, where Hamas raised a banner in the exchange site that read, "We are the flood, we are the extreme strength." Palestinian Ma'an News Agency reported that the exchanges had been arranged by the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, in two locations, with the first in Rafah and the second in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip.

The two Israeli captives, Tal Shoham and Avra Mengistu, were handed over to a team from the International Red Cross in Rafah.

Hamas had earlier confirmed that it would release the six Israeli captives, Elia Maimon Yitzhak Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Finkert, Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham al-Sayed, in exchange for 602 Palestinian prisoners and abductees.

The Israeli regime’s officials announced on Saturday the names of the Palestinian prisoners scheduled to be released under the new round of exchange deal.

MNA