Hamas said it will return the bodies of four Israeli hostages in the coming hours in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel had delayed the agreed-upon prisoner release, which threatened to collapse the ceasefire in Gaza. The current six-week first phase of the ceasefire expires this weekend.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Hamas would release four hostages’ bodies late Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) and the Prisoners Club, a group that represents current and former Palestinian prisoners, said Israel was expected to release hundreds of prisoners the same night in exchange.
Netanyahu’s office said the four bodies would be released without a ceremony, in a quieter fashion than than previous Hamas releases where captives and bodies were handed over to the Red Cross in highly stage-managed ceremonies.
Israel is expected to release over 600 prisoners to Gaza and the West Bank after delaying their release last weekend to protest Hamas’ public release ceremonies, which Israel said were cruel to the hostages.
Hamas’ military arm said it will hand over the bodies of four hostages to Israel, according to Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Earlier on Wednesday, tens of thousands of people lined highways in Israel on Wednesday as the bodies of a mother and her two young sons, killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip, were taken for burial.
The Bibas family’s plight has been a rallying cry for Israelis seeking the speedy release of all the hostages.
Footage of a terrified Shiri Bibas clutching her two sons, nine-month-old Kfir and four-year-old Ariel, as they were taken to Gaza by militants is seared into the country’s collective memory.
Israel says forensic evidence shows the boys were killed by their captors in November 2023, while Hamas says the family was killed along with their guards in an Israeli airstrike.
Their bodies were handed over earlier this month as part of a ceasefire deal that paused the Israel-Hamas war. Israelis endured another moment of agony when testing showed that one of the bodies returned by Hamas was identified as someone else. Shiri’s body was returned the following night and positively identified.
Yarden Bibas was abducted separately and released alive in a different handover last month. His wife and their two children were buried in a private ceremony near Kibbutz Nir Oz near Gaza, where they were living when they were abducted.
The three were buried in a joint grave next to Shiri’s parents, who were also killed in the attack.
