Hamas has released the bodies of four hostages; a woman, her two children and an 83-year-old Israeli man who were taken captive during the October 2023 attack.
The bodies that have been handed over included Israeli infant Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother Ariel, their mother Shiri Bibas, and a fourth captive, Oded Lifschitz.
The bodies were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Four men carried the four coffins from the stage to the Red Cross vehicles, one at a time.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian group said that all four captives were alive before the “Zionist occupation aircraft deliberately bombed the locations where they were being held.”
Hamas said in a statement that it “preserved the lives of the occupation prisoners”, provided them with what it could, and “treated them humanely, but their [Israel’s] army killed them along with their captors.”
“Criminal Netanyahu is crying today over the bodies of his prisoners who returned to him in coffins, in a blatant attempt to evade responsibility for their killing in front of his audience.”
Hamas
Addressing the families of the killed Israeli captives, it said, “We would have preferred your sons to return to you alive, but your army and government leaders chose to kill them instead of bringing them back.”
The return of the bodies is part of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel that will also see hundreds of Palestinians released from Israeli jails where a number of them have been kept in detention without any charge or trial.
A Palestinian group said that Israel is withholding the remains of at least 665 Palestinians, including several killed in the 1960s and 1970s.
Following the handover, the remains will be moved into coffins and an army rabbi will preside over a short ceremony.
They will then be taken into Israel to the national forensic institute to be identified, a process that could take a few hours or even a few days.
Only after identification will there be a formal announcement of their deaths and a funeral.
Return Of Bodies Bemoaned
Akiva Eldar, an Israeli author and political analyst, said that the return of the bodies marks a “very sad day for all of us.”
He told a news agency, “These babies became the symbol of I would say Israeli stupidity, fool attitude of the Israeli government.”
He said that Netanyahu is well aware of the poor conditions of the Israeli captives “but he has other priorities.”
“It’s kind of a race between the families who are hoping to see their loved ones back home, and Netanyahu, who is desiring to keep his government as long as he can and to buy more time and buy the support of the people on the radical right that believe that land is more precious than the lives of people.”
Akiva Eldar
The handover of bodies will be followed by the return of six living captives on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians, expected to be women and minors detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.
Hamas said that it will then release four more captives’ bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire.
Negotiations for a second phase, which is expected to see the return of about 60 remaining captives, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip to allow an end to the war, are likely to begin in the coming days.
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