Three more Israeli hostages — two females and an 80-year-old man — were released in Gaza Thursday as the third hostages-for-prisoners swap agreed to by Israel and Hamas got underway, but the chaotic nature of the handover of two of the Israelis angered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the extent that he delayed his country's part of the exchange until later in the day. Israel did start releasing Palestinian detainees from the Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank later Thursday, keeping to its part of the third exchange amid the ongoing ceasefire. Buses carrying the what was expected to be 110 prisoners freed on Thursday were seen leaving the prison about two hours after Netanyahu's spokesman said he had "instructed to delay the release of the terrorists scheduled to be released today — until the safe exit of our hostages is guaranteed in the next few days."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu halted the freeing of over 100 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday in response to a mob scene that erupted as Hamas released Israeli hostages. Video footage appeared to show hostages fighting through a rowdy crowd of civilians and masked militants at a release site in Khan Younis. Mediators must guarantee such shocking scenes do not reoccur, Netanyahu ordered. Israel will not release the Palestinian prisoners as agreed upon in the ceasefire deal until mediators guarantee safe exits for Israel’s hostages, he wrote in another statement Thursday.

Israeli leaders delayed the release of more than a hundred Palestinians as agreed over concerns with how the eight Israeli hostages were released earlier on Thursday. Seven of the eight hostages were released from Khan Younis. As they were handed over to the Red Cross, videos showed a chaotic scene unfolding with the hostages surrounded by armed militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based terrorist organization. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the scenes as “shocking.”