Israel and Hamas say the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza will be returned on Wednesday night, after mediators resolved the latest ceasefire dispute.
Israel is set to free in exchange 602 Palestinian prisoners, whose release it had delayed since last weekend in protest at what it said was the cruel treatment of hostages being handed over by Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister’s office announced the four bodies would be returned “without Hamas ceremonies”, while the Israel Prison Service said it was preparing to free prisoners and detainees from Gaza.
Hamas also confirmed the exchange, and the Prisoners’ Media Office said a hospital in Gaza was preparing to receive released Palestinians.
This would clear the way for US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to visit the region. He has said he wants Israel and Hamas to begin delayed talks on the second stage of the ceasefire, with the first due to expire on Saturday.
News of the breakthrough came as thousands of Israelis gathered along roads in central and southern Israel to watch the funeral procession of hostages Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, whose bodies were returned by Hamas last week.
They were killed in captivity after being kidnapped during Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza. Israel has said they were murdered by their captors, rejecting Hamas’s claim that they died in an Israeli air strike.
On Tuesday night, Hamas said a delegation led by the group’s Gaza leader, Khalil al-Hayya, had concluded talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo after reaching an agreement to resolve the problem over the delayed release of the Palestinian prisoners.
“They will be released simultaneously with the bodies of the Israeli [hostages] agreed to be handed over during the first phase, in addition to the corresponding Palestinian women and children,” it added.
Hayya also reiterated that Hamas – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, UK, and other countries – was committed to the ceasefire deal “with all its stages and clauses”.
Israeli officials also said an agreement had been reached with the mediators, but it was not until Wednesday afternoon that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office put out a brief statement confirming that.
“Four of our deceased hostages will be returned tonight in the framework of the first stage, in an agreed-upon procedure and without Hamas ceremonies,” it said, without naming them.
The spokesman of Hamas’s military wing later announced: “Within the framework of the deal, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades has decided to hand over the bodies of four [hostages] tonight.”
He identified them as Shlomo Mansour, 86, Ohad Yahalomi, 50, Tsachi Idan, 50, and Itzik Elgarat, 69.
The Israel Prison Service confirmed it was “making preparations for the process of releasing imprisoned terrorists in accordance with the agreement”.
Operational units would escort the Palestinian prisoners and detainees to Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, and Ketziot prison in southern Israel, where they would be identified by the Red Cross and await the handover of the Israeli hostages, a statement said.
Once their release was approved, they would be driven by the Red Cross to release points in the West Bank and the Kerem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza, it added.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office meanwhile said the European Gaza Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis was preparing to receive those returned to Gaza.
It has previously said the 602 Palestinians include 445 Gazans detained by Israeli forces during the war and 50 prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails.
The ceasefire deal has also seen hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians allowed to return to their home areas in northern Gaza [AFP]
They should have been released last Saturday in return for six living and four dead hostages who had been handed over by Hamas, including Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.
However, the Israeli prime minister’s office said early on Sunday that the release would be postponed “in light of Hamas’s repeated violations, including the ceremonies that humiliate our hostages and the cynical exploitation of our hostages for propaganda purposes”.
Hamas said Israel’s decision was a “blatant” violation and said indirect talks about further steps, including on the deal’s second phase, were conditional on the prisoners being released.
A total of 33 Israeli hostages are supposed to be exchanged for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Gaza during the ceasefire deal’s first phase lasting six weeks.
So far, 25 living hostages and four dead hostages have been released. Both Israel and Hamas have said the last four hostages are dead. Five living Thai hostages have also been freed outside of the deal.
The agreement has seen Israeli forces withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been allowed to return to the north, and hundreds of aid lorries are now being allowed into the territory each day.
The ceasefire’s second phase should see the 57 remaining hostages released, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and a permanent ceasefire.
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the 7 October attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
At least 48,348 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.1 million has also been displaced multiple times, almost 70% of buildings are estimated to be damaged or destroyed, the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.
