Hamas has handed over four bodies of Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza, according to an Israeli security official. The release comes days before the first phase of their ceasefire will end. Israel had delayed the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it called the cruel treatment of hostages during their handover by Hamas.
The militant group called the delay a “serious violation” of the ceasefire and said talks on a second phase are not possible until the Palestinians are freed. Israel, along with the Red Cross and UN officials, have called the past ceremonies humiliating for the hostages. Meanwhile, a Red Cross convoy carrying dozens of released Palestinian prisoners has been seen leaving Israel’s Ofer prison.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had said on Wednesday that the release of the bodies would be carried out without a ceremony, as opposed to past Hamas releases with stage-managed events in front of crowds.
Israel, along with the Red Cross and U.N. officials, have called the ceremonies humiliating for the hostages. Expected in the release is an unspecified number of women and teenagers detained since the Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The handover will complete both sides’ obligations under the ceasefire’s first phase.
The four hostages are Shlomo Mantzur, 86, the eldest hostage, Tsachi Idan, 50, Ohad Yahalomi, 50, and Itzik Elgarat, 69. They were kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023. The family of Israeli Tsachi Idan said it was notified he is dead and his body was among those returned.
Idan was taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz and his eldest daughter, Maayan, was killed as militants shot through the door of the safe room. Hamas militants broadcast themselves on Facebook holding the family hostage in their home as two younger children pleaded to let them go. French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X about Israeli-French hostage Ohad Yahalomi, whose body is also expected to among those released.
“In these suspended hours of pain and anguish, the nation stands by their side,” he said. This latest release comes after the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her sons, nine-month-old Kfir and four-year-old Ariel, were handed over earlier this month. The ceasefire’s six-week first phase expires this weekend.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said he wants the sides to move into negotiations on the second phase, during which all remaining hostages held by Hamas would be released and an end to the war would be negotiated.
Talks on the second phase were supposed to begin in the first week of February. The ceasefire, brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, ended 15 months of war that erupted after Hamas’ 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and about 250 people were taken hostage.
Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials. The fighting has displaced about 90 per cent of Gaza’s population and devastated the territory’s infrastructure and health system.
Al-Qassam Brigades handed over the bodies to the ICRC team, and the team will deliver them to the Israeli army through Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, a source with Hamas said.
According to a statement from Hamas’s Media Office, 620 prisoners will be released from Israeli prisons, including 151 who were sentenced to life imprisonment. It is the largest group of Palestinians released in the first phase of the agreement. Among them, 445 are Gazans who were arrested after the war began, and 11 are Gazans who were detained before the war. In addition, 24 women and minors from Gaza will be released. A total of 43 prisoners will be released to the Israeli-controlled West Bank and East Jerusalem, while 97 will be deported abroad.
