KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas handed over the bodies of four hostages to the Red Cross early Thursday in exchange for Israel's release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, days before the first phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was to end.
An Israeli security official confirmed that Hamas handed the hostages' bodies to the Red Cross. Israel said the caskets were delivered with the help of Egyptian mediators through an Israeli crossing and an identification process had begun.
At around the same time, a Red Cross convoy carrying several dozen released Palestinian prisoners left Israel’s Ofer prison headed for the West Bank town of Beitunia, where hundreds of well-wishers jostled for a glimpse of the bus as it arrived.
Friends and family greeted the released prisoners, hugging them and snapping photos. One released man made a victory sign as he was carried on the shoulders of supporters, with the crowd chanting “God is Great.” The released prisoners wore Israeli Prison Service T-shirts that some of them took off and set on fire.
Hundreds of other prisoners were to be sent to Gaza, many of them detained after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and never charged.
Israel had delayed the release of over 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it called the cruel treatment of hostages during their handover by Hamas. The militant group has called the delay a “serious violation” of the ceasefire and said talks on a second phase aren’t possible until the Palestinians are freed.
Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the latest release of hostages' bodies would be 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 U.N. officials, have called the ceremonies humiliating for the hostages.
Among those scheduled to leave Israel early Thursday were hundreds of detainees arrested from Gaza, held on suspicion of militancy after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, without charge for months. They include 445 men, 21 teenagers and one woman, according to lists shared by Palestinian officials that did not specify their ages.
Only around 50 Palestinians were released into the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem in this round. Dozens sentenced to life over deadly attacks against Israelis will be exiled out of the Palestinian territories and taken to Egypt at least temporarily until other countries accept them.
The latest handovers would complete both sides’ obligations under the ceasefire’s first phase, during which Hamas returned 33 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The family of a hostage in Gaza said they were notified he is dead and his body was among those to be returned to Israel. The family did not say who informed them. Notifications typically come from Israel's military.
Tsachi Idan was taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. His eldest daughter, Maayan, was killed as militants shot through the door of the family's safe room. Hamas militants broadcast themselves on Facebook holding the family hostage in their home as two younger children pleaded to let them go.
French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X about Israeli-French hostage Ohad Yahalomi, whose body was also expected to be released: “In these suspended hours of pain and anguish, the nation stands by their side.”
A fragile ceasefire in peril
The ceasefire's six-week first phase expires this weekend. U.S. 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 the first week of February.
The ceasefire, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, ended 15 months of war that erupted after Hamas’ 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. About 250 people were taken hostage.
Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, who don't differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths but say over half the dead have been women and children.
The fighting also displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza’s population and decimated the territory’s infrastructure and health system.
Israel buries mother, sons killed in captivity
On Wednesday, 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 airstrike.
The husband and father, Yarden Bibas, was abducted separately and released alive in a different handover. His wife and their children were buried in a private ceremony near Kibbutz Nir Oz near Gaza, where they were living when they were abducted. They were buried in a joint grave next to Shiri’s parents, who were killed in the attack.
Another infant in Gaza dies of hypothermia
With people living in tent camps and damaged buildings in Gaza in chilly weather, health officials said another infant had died of hypothermia Wednesday, bringing the toll to seven over the past two weeks.
Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said the baby less than two months old died due to the “severe cold wave” that has hit the Palestinian enclave.
Temperatures have been below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night and the last few days have been particularly cold.
___
Federman reported from Jerusalem. Magdy reported from Cairo.
___
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy And Josef Federman, The Associated Press
