JERUSALEM — Israel has acquired the our bodies of 4 extra Israeli hostages, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Workplace stated early Thursday native time.
The workplace stated it acquired the coffins of the hostages from the Pink Cross after Hamas turned the our bodies over to the group. An preliminary identification course of is now underway in Israel.
Hamas earlier stated that it might be releasing Tsachi Idan, 49; Shlomo Mantzur, 85; Itzhak Elgarat, 68; and Ohad Yahalomi, 49. Israel has not launched affirmation that the our bodies had been of these 4 hostages.
Abu Obaida, a spokesperson for Hamas’ navy wing Al Qassam Brigades, advised NBC Information that Hamas would launch the our bodies in accordance with the phrases of the ceasefire deal it brokered with Israel on Jan. 19.
The 4 our bodies are anticipated to be the ultimate Israeli hostages launched as a part of the primary part of the five-week-old ceasefire, with 29 hostages returned to this point out of an agreed 33. Israeli and Hamas negotiators have but to start talks relating to the ceasefire’s second part.
4 of the hostages handed over final week had been additionally deceased, with what Hamas stated was a mix-up within the identification of 1 abductee at one level threatening to derail the ceasefire.
Round 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees had been purported to be handed over late final week however weren’t. The Hamas Prisoners’ Media Workplace stated that 590 to 594 prisoners from Gaza had been anticipated to be launched Wednesday evening. The Israeli authorities have but to verify that determine.
Preparations had been underway on the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis to obtain the prisoners, who had been anticipated to reach from 10 p.m. to midnight, native time, the Prisoners’ Media Workplace stated in a press release.
Reside video from The Related Press and Reuters confirmed buses leaving Ofer Jail early Thursday native time. In a single video, individuals had been seen getting off a bus to a big crowd that had gathered in Ramallah.
The Israeli authorities delayed their launch, set for final Saturday, after forensic testing revealed {that a} casket handed over by Hamas bearing the picture of Shiri Bibas, 32, didn’t include her physique.
Bibas was laid to relaxation on Wednesday alongside together with her two younger sons, who had been 4 years previous and simply shy of 9 months previous once they had been taken hostage by Hamas throughout the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. Oded Lifshitz, the fourth physique handed over final week by Hamas, was 84 when he died, and he was buried on Tuesday.
Hundreds of individuals line the road to look at and pay their respects because the funeral procession carrying the caskets of Shiri Bibas, Kfir Bibas and Ariel Bibas cross by with the household in minibuses behind them on its option to the funeral on February 26, 2025 in Rishon LeZion, Israel.
Round 250 hostages had been taken Oct. 7 and round 1,200 Israelis had been killed, Israeli officers say. The assaults sparked the just about year-and-a-half struggle in Gaza between Israel and Hamas that has killed greater than 48,300 individuals within the enclave, Hamas-run well being authorities say.
With the handover attributable to occur at evening, Hamas seems to be set to keep away from a repeat of the scenes of earlier handovers. Final week, caskets it stated contained 4 deceased Israeli hostages had been paraded on a stage in opposition to a backdrop of propaganda slogans.
The ceremony was extensively condemned by human rights teams and the worldwide neighborhood.
Shlomo Mantzur, one of many 4 deceased hostages to be handed over Wednesday, was the oldest of all of the individuals kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Mantzur, who was 85, was seized at gunpoint from his residence on kibbutz Kisufim. His household had remained hopeful that he had survived, however the Israeli military stated earlier this month that he had been killed on Oct. 7 and his physique taken to Gaza.
Mantzur immigrated to Israel from Iraq at 13, after surviving the 1941 pogrom in opposition to the Jewish neighborhood in Baghdad, often called the Farhud, during which 200 individuals had been killed.
A father of 5 and one of many founders of the kibbutz Kisufim, Mantzur ran his personal carpentry and clock-repair workshop.
Tsachi Idan was seized from his residence in kibbutz Nahal Oz after Palestinians held his household at gunpoint and killed the oldest of his three kids, 18-year-old Maayan.
After utilizing the household residence as a company level, Hamas gunmen left his spouse, Gali, and their two different kids, Yael, then 11, and son, Shahar, then 9, behind. Yael advised Israel’s Channel 12 final yr that the gunmen had promised that her father would return.
From the testimony of returning hostages, the household knew that Idan was initially alive when introduced into Gaza.
Itzhak Elgarat was the handyman at kibbutz Nir Oz — the kibbutz that noticed many killed and brought hostage, together with the Bibas household.
A twin Israeli-Danish citizen, Elgarat was seized from a protected room in his home whereas on the telephone to his brother Dani.
Talking final yr to Australian web site Quillette, Dani stated he heard Itzhak say, “Dani, that is the top.” A location marker from his telephone later confirmed that he was in Gaza.
Dani stated that hostages launched in November 2023 had advised him that his brother was alive.
Ohad Yahalomi was wounded and kidnapped additionally at kibbitz Nir Oz, as he guarded his household’s protected room.
His spouse and their three kids — aged 12 and 10 and a 3rd who was a toddler —had been seized and positioned on bikes.
Whereas their son Eitan, 12, was taken alone into Gaza and launched in November 2023, the mom and her two daughters managed to flee, hiding within the fields round their kibbutz till they may return residence.
This text was initially revealed on NBCNews.com
