Hamas hands over the body of 4 hostages when Israel releases hundreds of Palestinian prisoners

Jerusalem – In the early Thursday, Hamas gave four dead hostages to the Red Cross over the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, days before the first phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that Hamas had handed over the corpses to the Red Cross and added: “The first identification process on the Israeli territory has started.”

Around the same time, when the corpses entered Wednesday, a convoy of the Red Cross, who promoted dozens of freed Palestinian prisoners, left the Ofer prison in Israel. The lot of cheering families, friends and supporters of Palestinian prisoners were gathered in Beitunia to take a look at the bus that was on the way.

Israel had delayed the release of over 600 Palestinian prisoners Since Saturday to protest, as the cruel treatment of hostages called during their handover by Hamas. The terrorist group has referred to the delay as the “serious injury” of the ceasefire and said that the talks are not possible in a second phase if the Palestinians are freed. The deadlock had threatened to collapse the ceasefire when the current six -week first phase of the deal expires on Saturday. But in late Tuesday, Hamas said that an agreement had been made to solve the dispute during the meetings in Cairo.

The Netanyahu office had declared on Wednesday that the release of the corpses without a ceremony would be carried out, in contrast to previous Hamas publications with stage events before crowds. Together with the Red Cross and the UN officials, Israel has referred to the ceremonies that humble for the hostages.

Among those who left Israel in the early Thursday, hundreds of prisoners from Gaza were arrested, who were suspected of militant to Hamas' 7. October 2023, attack, were held for months without charges. This includes 445 men, 21 teenagers and a woman who were all arrested after the Hamas attack, as shared by Palestinian officials who did not specify their age.

In this round, only around 50 Palestinians were released into the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Dozens of people who are sentenced to life for fatal attacks against Israelis are banished from the Palestinian areas that were brought to Egypt at least temporarily until other countries accept them.

The handover takes place as part of the first phase of the ceasefire, in which the Hamas 33 hostages, including eight corpses, returned to almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

In a short explanation on Wednesday, the Netanyahu office confirmed that the mediators had achieved an agreement, and added that “our four fallen hostages will be returned as part of phase A this evening, according to an agreed procedure and without Hamas ceremonies”.

Before Thursday, Hamas had published Israeli hostages and the corpses of dead prisoners in large public ceremonies, in which the Israelis were demonstrated and forced to wave large crowds. Together with the officials of the Red Cross and the United Nations, Israel has announced that the ceremonies of the hostages were humiliated, and Israel delayed the planned release of prisoners in protest last weekend.

The latest agreement would meet both sides of the first phase of the ceasefire – in which the Hamas 33 hostages – including eight corpses – should return against almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

It could also clarify the way for a likely return to the region through the Midose envoy of the White House Steve Witkoff.

At an event on Tuesday in Washington, he said for the American Jewish Committee that the Israeli representatives were already on the way to talking about the next phase of the ceasefire, and he repeated that, according to the French news agency AFP, he was also ready to return to the region.

“We are making a lot of progress. Israel is currently sending a team while speaking,” said Witkoff, adding that talks in Cairo or Doha, the capital of Katar, could be resumed.

Witkoff said he wants the pages to be negotiated into the second phase in which all remaining hostages of Hamas are to be released and an end to the war is to be negotiated. The phase-two conversations should start weeks ago, but never.

The ceasefire, which was mediated by the USA, Egypt and Qatar Hamas' 7. October 2023, terrorist attackMilitants killed around 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 others as hostages.

According to the Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza, the Israeli military offensive killed over 48,000 Palestinians, estimated 90% of the population of the enclave and decimates the infrastructure and the health system of the territory. The Ministry of Health does not differentiate between civil and militant victims, but it is said that more than half of the dead women and children were.