Hamas gives back bodies of four captives while Israel releases 620 Palestinians

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The last four bodies of hostages were returned by Hamas to the Red Cross.
Thousands gathered in Israel to mourn the Bibas family who were taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attack.
The first phase of the 42-day truce is due to expire on Saturday.

Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages while it waited for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in return, the last such exchange agreed as part of a fragile truce in Gaza.

The ceasefire came into effect on 19 January and has largely held, despite . But its is due to end this week and the fate of its next phase, which aims to end the war, remains unclear. Hamas said that it has not received any proposals so far.

After days of impasse, Egyptian mediators secured the handover of the final four hostage bodies in the deal’s first phase, for 620 Palestinians either detained by Israeli forces in Gaza or jailed in Israel.

Hamas handed over four bodies to the Red Cross, an Israeli security source told Reuters news agency.

Hamas had previously identified the bodies as those of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur, all of whom were abducted during the October 7 2023 attack from their kibbutz homes near Gaza, to the Red Cross.

The handover did not include a Hamas ceremony.

The staged ceremonies in which living hostages and coffins carrying hostage remains were displayed on stage before a crowd in Gaza .

Israel had refused to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday after Hamas handed over six hostages in such a ceremony.

The Palestinian detainees due to be released include 445 men and 24 women and minors arrested in Gaza, as well as 151 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, according to a Hamas source.

A bus carrying some of the released prisoners was seen leaving an Israeli jail in the West Bank. Hamas said a hospital in Gaza would receive them.

The first phase of the ceasefire , and the from some positions in Gaza as well as an influx of aid.

Three women wearing headscarves and a young man sitting on chairs together inside. Other groups are sitting and standing in the background

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday local time waiting for the release of their relatives from Israeli jails. Source: EPA / Atef Safadi

But with the 42-day truce due to expire on Saturday, it remains unclear whether an extension that could see more of the 59 remaining hostages go free will be agreed or whether negotiations can start on a second stage of the deal.

Israelis pay last respects to Bibas family

Meanwhile, Israelis mourned the family that symbolised the trauma their country suffered in the October 7 attack.

The funeral of the Bibas family was held on Wednesday (local time) following , his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri last week.

The youngest hostages seized during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel were killed weeks after they were abducted into the Gaza Strip.

Israel said it has intelligence and forensic evidence that shows the boys and their mother were killed by their captors using their bare hands. Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Thousands of people, some in tears, carrying blue and white Israeli flags or photographs of the family, walked in procession or waited as a convoy bearing the coffins drove past. Many were carrying orange balloons, a symbol of mourning for the hostages, matching the red hair of the two Bibas boys.

“It’s still not really registering,” said Tal Ben-Shimon, who joined mourners at what has come to be known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.

“They kind of represent all the families, the very young families, who were slaughtered on that day.”

Yarden Bibas, the father of the boys, who was captured separately from his family and released earlier this month, paid tribute in an emotional eulogy at their funeral.

“I hope you know I thought about you every day, every minute,” he said in an address carried live on Israeli television.