Hamas has handed over the bodies of four hostages and Israel has started the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, days before the first phase of the ceasefire between the two sides ends.
The handover was confirmed by an Israeli security official early on Thursday on condition of anonymity, with a formal announcement yet to be made.
Meanwhile, a Red Cross convoy carrying dozens of released Palestinian prisoners and detainees was seen leaving Israel’s Ofer prison. Crowds of cheering families and friends of the prisoners gathered in Beitunia for a glimpse of the bus.
Israel had delayed the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it called the cruel treatment of hostages during their handover by Hamas.
The militant group had called Israel’s delay a “serious violation” of the ceasefire and said talks on a second phase were not possible until the Palestinians were freed.
The release of the bodies was carried out without ceremony, as opposed to past Hamas releases with stage-managed events in front of crowds. Israel, along with the Red Cross and UN officials, had described the ceremonies as humiliating for the hostages.
A number of women and teenagers detained since the militant group’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which sparked the conflict in Gaza, were included in the exchange.
A Hamas source said the prisoners and 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.
Only around 50 Palestinians will be released into the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem in this round, while many sentenced to life over deadly attacks on Israelis will be exiled out of the Palestinian territories, taken to Egypt at least temporarily until other countries accept them.
The handover completes both sides’ obligations under the first phase of the ceasefire, during which Hamas returned 33 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The family of one hostage in Gaza said it had been notified he was dead and his body was among those to be returned. Tsachi Idan was taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. His eldest daughter, Maayan, was killed as militants shot through the door of the safe room.
The ceasefire’s six-week first phase expires this weekend. US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has said he wants the sides to move into negotiations on the second phase, during which all remaining hostages held by Hamas would be released and an end to the war would be negotiated.
Talks on the second phase were supposed to begin in the first week of February.
Tens of thousands of Israelis lined highways as the bodies of a mother and her two young sons, killed in captivity in Gaza, were taken for burial on Wednesday. The bodies of Shiri Bibas and her sons, 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel, were handed over earlier this month.
Israel says forensic evidence shows the children were killed by their captors in November 2023, while Hamas says the family was killed along with their guards in an Israeli air strike.
With people living in tent camps and damaged buildings in Gaza in chilly weather, health officials said another infant had died of hypothermia, bringing the toll to seven in two weeks.
Temperatures have been below 10C (50F) at night and the past few days have been particularly cold.
