The official Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that Israel postponed the release of Palestinian prisoners as part of the seventh batch of the exchange deal until the end of security consultations held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening regarding negotiations for the second phase of the Gaza agreement.

This comes as the private Hebrew newspaper "Israel Hayom" quoted the Israeli Prison Service as saying that the political leadership has not yet issued instructions to release Palestinian detainees in the current batch.

As part of the seventh batch of the exchange deal, Hamas handed over 6 living prisoners to the Israeli side earlier today, and before that, it released 4 bodies of other prisoners on Thursday.

In return, Israel is supposed to release 620 Palestinian prisoners, including 50 sentenced to life imprisonment, 97 to be deported abroad, and 23 children arrested by the Israeli army from Gaza after October 7, 2023.