An Isaeli hostage whose British wife and teenage daughters were ruthlessly killed by Hamas has been released in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal aimed at opening the way to ending the 15-month hellish war in Gaza. Eli Sharabi, dressed in a brown shirt and trousers, was walked on stage by Hamas fighters on Saturday in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy were also paraded in front of a crowd before being handed over to a team from International Committee of the Red Cross. All three hostages, looking gaunt, were seen holding certificates and appeared to be intervewed by a masked Hamas fighter. Crowds of people gathered at the site of their release, where the ICRC vehicles waited to collect the hostages and transport them to Israeli forces in Gaza, who will then take them into Israel. Family members of Sharabi cheeried as they watched him and the two other hostages stepping out from the Hamas vehicle. But they were quick to notice how thin and frail all three men appeared to be. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters commented that the 'disturbing images from the release of Ohad, Eli, and Or serve as yet another stark and painful evidence that leaves no room for doubt - there is no time to waste for the hostages'. 'We must get them all out, down to the very last hostage,' the group says in a press release. The Israel Defence Forces gave said in a post in X that their helicopters are now standing by to receive the returning hostages. In exchange, Israel will release 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people and including 18 serving life sentences and 111 detained in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas. Sharabi was taken captive by Hamas militants from Kibbutz Be'eri, a communal farm that was among the hardest hit in the deadly October 7 attack in 2023. His wife, Lianne, and their teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were killed by militants while hiding in their safe room. And his brother, Yossi Sharabi, who lived next door, was killed in captivity. Ben Ami, a father of three, was taken with his wife Raz from Kibbutz Be'eri, where he worked as the kibbutz accountant. However, Mrs Ben Ami was later released during the brief ceasefire period in November. Levy, a computer programmer, was pulled by the militants from a bomb shelter near the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the October 7 attack. He had fled the scene with his wife, Einav Levy, who was later killed. Their son Almog, a toddler, is currently under the care of his grandparents. For families of the hostages who have been held incommunicado in Gaza for more than a year, the wait has been a roller-coaster of dread and hope as the moments of reunion drew near. The British family of named hostage Mr Sharabi has welcomed the news of his imminent release. In a statement, lawyers for the family, Adam Rose and Adam Wagner, stressed that release arrangements must prioritise the safety of the hostages. 'We and our clients, the Sharabi and Brisley families, are pleased and relieved that Eli Sharabi is reportedly on the list for release by Hamas, due to take place tomorrow,' the statement read. 'There cannot be a repeat of the scenes a week ago when hostages were put at danger of injury and death by a mob of thousands of people. 'We call on the UK Government, which has taken formal responsibility for Eli due to his close British connections, to call for this and use any diplomatic means to achieve it. The exchange is the latest in a series of swaps that have so far returned 13 Israeli and five Thai hostages abducted during the Hamas attack and released 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Despite hiccups, a 42-day ceasefire and hostage-for-prisoner exchange worked out with U.S. backing and mediation by Egypt and Qatar has held up since it took effect nearly three weeks ago. But fears the deal might collapse before all the hostages are free have grown since U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise call for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and for the enclave to be handed to the United States and developed into the 'Riviera of the Middle East'. Arab states and Palestinian groups have rejected the proposal, which critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, welcomed Trump's intervention and his defence minister ordered the military to make plans to allow Palestinians who wished to leave Gaza to do so. Under the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli children, women and sick, wounded and older men are to be released during an initial phase in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Negotiations on a second phase began this week aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation for a final end to the war. Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages. In response, Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated much of the narrow enclave.