GAZA CITY: Hamas on Thursday handed over the bodies of four deceased Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza. The hostages were killed during Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza since 7 October 2023.
The Israeli military said it had received the bodies of the deceased hostages through the Red Cross.
“The hostages’ bodies were handed over to IDF (military) and ISA (security agency) representatives in Gaza,” a military spokesperson said. A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had “received the caskets of four fallen hostages.”
The Red Cross had received four coffins during the handover earlier on Thursday of the bodies of Israeli hostages, including Bibas family members, in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, AFP reported.
The remains are of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir. Hamas has said all three were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. The Palestinian group also plans to release the body of Oded Lifshitz.
Fragile Gaza ceasefire
Hamas is set to free six hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and says it will release four more bodies next week, completing the ceasefire’s first phase.
Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, said he is committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages.
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Trump’s proposal to remove some two million Palestinians from Gaza and the US take over control of the Palestinian territory, which has been rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries, has thrown the ceasefire into further doubt.
Hamas could be reluctant to free more hostages if it believes Israel will resume the bombardment campaign with the goal of forcibly transferring Gaza’s population.
Israel’s military offensive killed over 48,297 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighbourhoods to fields of rubble and bombed-out buildings. At its height, the Israeli war displaced 90 percent of Gaza’s population. Many have returned to their homes to find nothing left and no way of rebuilding. – Agencies
