On Wednesday, Hamas announced the remains of what he said they were four Israeli hostages, the last in a group of eight former prisoners and 25 living who were scheduled for repatriation in the first phase of a fragile agreement on the interruption of fire between Israel and a militant group.
Hamas’s military wing said that the remains belong to Shlomo Mansour, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Tsachi Idan – the Israelites abducted during October 2023, an attack on Israel that began the war. Israel did not comment immediately.
The announcement followed a few full days of negotiations after Israel refused to deliver 620 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday that he agreed to exchanged For six of the Scholas of Israel. From the end of January, when the fire interruption came into force, Israel and Hamas regularly exchange hostages taken to Gaza for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
After Hamas posted six Israelis on Saturday – most of them in performance events intended to display continuous control of a militant group in Gaza – Israel refused to free Palestinian prisoners, saying that he would not do so until Hamas pledged to release more hostages and rejection of humiliation ceremonies. “
Before he returned hostages, Hamas often paraded them, shouting the crowds of the supporters of the group, the angry Israeli officials. Last week, before Hamas handed the coffins they said to contain four prisoners’ remains, the militant group staged a display with music and a derision aimed at the Israeli government. Volker Türk, head of the United Nations, called the event “awful and cruel.”
Israeli authorities had forensic teams present on handover to try to initially identify the body, the Ministry of Health said, after which they will be taken to the Israeli Institute for Forensic Medicine.
Israel is expected to release 620 Palestinian prisoners after confirming the identity of four returned bodies.
Here’s a more close view of the late hostage Hamas said it was published.
Shlomo Mansour
Mr. Mansour was 85 years When Hamas led an attack on Israel in 2023. He was the oldest hostage, and his death until recently was not confirmed. This month of Israeli authorities said Mr. Mansour had was killed in an initial attack and that his body was taken to Gaza.
During the attack, the militants broke into Mr. Mansour’s home and his wife Mazala Mansour in Kibbutz Kissufim, near the Gaza border. The armed men dragged them both outside where Mr. Mansour foxes foxed and beat him up, his daughter said Israeli newspaper media. His wife managed to escape and hid at the neighbor’s house.
Mr. Mansour was born in Iraq and moved into Israel as a teenager. He managed Kibbutz chicken cakes and was a fan of ice cream. Nearly a year ago last March, his family marked what would be his 86th birthday with the demand that the public Eat ice cream On his behalf and post a picture on social networks with the inscription “Bring.shlomo.home.”
Itzhak Elgarat
Mr. Elgarat was 68 when he was captured during the attack. The fighters took him from his safe room to Kibbutz Nir Oz and shook him in hand, toward his brother Danny Elgarat, who talked to him at him Morning attacks. Mr. Elgarat was a double Israel and Danish citizen.
In July, Danny told Israeli media that the Israeli army told him that Itzhak was probably not alive, although there was evidence that he survived the attack and that his hand had been treated. Israeli officials did not confirm death at the time.
In October last year, Danny went on a hunger strike and protested daily near Knesset, Israeli Parliament, to press a hostage job. In January he said Danny in address to Israeli legislators That his brother was probably dead and invited them to release the living prisoners. “Leave the bodies there,” he said. “Return the living people.”
In Gaza, about 25 living hostages are still held, along with the bodies more than 30 others, according to the Israeli government.
Tsachi Idan
Mr. Idan was 49 years old when he was taken from his house to Kibbutz Nahal Oz. His oldest daughter Maayan, 18, was shot and killed during the attack; She died in front of her two brothers and sisters and parents. Part of family experience was who lived from militants After receiving his wife’s password, Gali Idan. (The second daughter at that time was not at home.)
Mrs. Idan, in interviews after torture, spoke of what the family endured – she said that his husband was taken away by his hands tied to his back as their Children prayed to militantswho said that He would come backDon’t kill him. She and two of their children were able to escape.
The mother of Mr. Idana, Devorah Idan, she spoke on set for hostage In Tel Aviv in August, describing the continuation of the hostage captivity as a “nightmare.”
His family said in a statement on Wednesday, after Hamas identified the bodies he would surrender, that they “still wait for the much needed security” that his death certificate will bring. They said that only after his arrival in Israel and “after all the necessary examinations would be carried out by authorized state authorities” to feel sure that the remains were Mr. Idan.
Ohad Yahalomi
Mr. Yahalomi was shot during the 2023 attack in a shooting with militants at his house in Kibbutz Nir Oz and He took a hostage. He was 49 at the time.
His wife and three children were taken from the house-12-year-old son of the married couple were separated from his mother and siblings and hostage was taken, while the other three family members managed to escape. The boy, Eitan, was published in November 2023, during an earlier interruption agreement.
Mr. Yahalomija’s family said he worked for the Israeli Nature and Parks Administration and that he was delighted with wild animals. Ephrat Yahalomi, his sister, who traveled the world to advocate for hostage work, said it was “incredibly painful” to know that prisoners were still falling in captivity.
“It’s been almost nine months, and I’m still standing here with a heavy heart, while you, ohad, are still not here,” She said in a statement at the end of June.
