Israel confirms Hamas handed over hostages’ bodies as Palestinian prisoners released

Israel has accomplished forensic assessments confirming the identities of 4 useless Israeli hostages whose our bodies have been handed over by Hamas in trade for the discharge of Palestinian prisoners.

On Wednesday evening, with out a ceremony, Hamas handed 4 coffins to the Pink Cross from Gaza. The affirmation that they contained the stays of Shlomo Mansour, 86, Ohad Yahalomi, 50, Tsachi Idan, 50, and Itzik Elgarat, 69, got here on Thursday morning from their households and communities.

The handover cleared the way in which for the delayed launch of greater than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

It was the final trade of the six-week-long first part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, with questions over what occurs subsequent.

Hamas has stated it is able to begin delayed talks on the second part, which goals to finish the warfare and safe the discharge of the remaining Israeli hostages.

However Israel’s prime minister, who faces pressures from his political allies to renew preventing and crush Hamas, has pushed for an extension of the present part.

The Israeli army launched a marketing campaign to destroy the Palestinian armed group in response to its unprecedented assault on Israel on 7 October 2023, by which about 1,200 individuals have been killed and 251 have been taken hostage.

A minimum of 48,348 individuals have been killed in Gaza since then, based on the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.

Most of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.1 million has additionally been displaced a number of instances, nearly 70% of buildings are estimated to be broken or destroyed, the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene methods have collapsed, and there are shortages of meals, gasoline, drugs and shelter.

On Thursday morning, the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, which represents the hostages’ households, stated it had “acquired with profound sorrow the information concerning the identification of Itzik Elgarat, Tsachi Idan, Shlomo Mansour and Ohad Yahalomi”, including that each one 4 males had been murdered.

“Fifty-nine hostages stay in captivity with no launch date in sight. We urge all resolution makers to make sure the return of the final hostage by the fiftieth day of the settlement,” it added.

“The hostages haven’t any time left – they need to return house to be reunited with their households or dropped at a dignified burial.”

Tsachi Idan was taken by Hamas gunmen from his house in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz close to the Gaza border on 7 October 2023. His eldest little one, Maayan – who had simply turned 18 – was shot useless within the assault.

Itzik Elgarat was kidnapped from Nir Oz, one other kibbutz, and reportedly shot within the hand in the course of the assault. His cellphone was traced to Gaza following the assault.

Ohad Yahalomi was kidnapped from Nir Oz, alongside together with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was launched throughout a week-long ceasefire in November 2023.

The Israeli army stated earlier this month that it had knowledgeable the household of Iraq-born Shlomo Mansour that he was killed by Hamas at Kibbutz Kissufim on 7 October 2023 and that his physique was taken to Gaza as a hostage.

Hamas handed over the 4 males’s our bodies late on Wednesday evening, with no public ceremony, not like in earlier exchanges in the course of the present ceasefire.

Israeli authorities carried out preliminary forensic testing near the Israel-Gaza border earlier than transferring the stays to a forensics laboratory in Tel Aviv.

It got here after the physique of a Palestinian lady from Gaza was handed over by Hamas to Israel as a substitute of the physique of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas final Thursday, prompting fury in Israel. Hamas stated it was a mistake and transferred Bibas’s physique the next day.

On Saturday, Israel delayed the discharge of greater than 600 Palestinian prisoners due to what it stated was the merciless therapy of hostages on the public handovers.

After days of deadlock, Egyptian mediators secured the trade, with the Israeli prime minister’s workplace saying the hostages’ our bodies could be handed over “in an agreed-upon process and with out Hamas ceremonies”.

A Hamas official in the meantime instructed the AFP information company that the return of the 4 our bodies would happen “with out public presence to forestall the occupation from discovering any pretext for delay or obstruction”.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Israelis lined the roads of southern Israel for the funeral procession of Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who have been killed in captivity in Gaza.

Following the handover of the our bodies, buses carrying Palestinian prisoners left Ofer jail within the occupied West Financial institution after which arriving on the Ramallah Cultural Palace, the place a big crowd gathered to rejoice their launch.

Later, dozens of Palestinian prisoners have been seen getting off buses exterior a hospital within the metropolis of Khan Younis, southern Gaza. They have been amongst greater than 400 Gazans detained by Israeli forces with out cost in the course of the warfare.

Dozens of prisoners convicted of finishing up lethal assaults on Israelis are additionally being despatched overseas.

It now stays unclear whether or not the truce will probably be prolonged or progress to a deliberate second part, which might see the discharge of all remaining residing hostages in Gaza in trade for extra Palestinian prisoners.

Oblique negotiations for the second part have been resulting from begin earlier this month however they haven’t but received underneath means.