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.

Eight more hostages were freed by Hamas-led militants on Thursday in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly delayed the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners by Israel and underscored the fragility of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that began earlier this month.

Eight hostages − three Israelis and five Thai nationals − were returned to Israel on Thursday after spending 482 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza. They were freed in an at-times chaotic handover in connection with a weeks-long ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners swap between Israel and the militant group aimed at ending 15 months of fighting.