Hamas handed over what the bodies of the four Israeli hostages from Gaza were in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel tests DNA samples to confirm that the remains of Shlomo Mansour, 86, Ohad Yahalomi, 50, Tsachi Idan, 50, and Itzik Elgarat (69), which Hamas performed in attacks on October 7, 2023.
Early on Thursday, Israel began to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, and dozens returned to the occupied West Coast and Gaza, where they were greeted by cheerful crowds.
It will be the final exchange of the first phase of the trial agreement, which should end on Saturday.
Israel has yet to confirm the results of DNA tests carried out on four bodies returned as part of an exchange.
The initial tests were expected to happen near the Israel-Gaza border, and the Israeli media later reported that they were transported to the Forensics Laboratory in Tel Aviv.
It comes after the body of Palestinian woman from Gaza Hamas handed over to Israel instead of the body of Israeli Shiri Bibas last Thursday, causing anger in Israel. Hamas said it was a wrong identification and that he later handed over the body to Israel, which confirmed that it was Bibas.
Hamas handed the bodies privately, without a public ceremony, as Israel demanded, unlike previous exchanges.
Israel accused Hamas of “humiliating” handover ceremonies – and delayed the prisoner’s release last weekend of what he said was cruel to hostages on handover.
Prior to Wednesday’s edition, the Hamas officer told the AFP news agency that the return of four bodies would happen “without a public presence to prevent the occupation from finding any pronunciation for delay or obstruction.”
Photos posted by Reuters News Agency showed a bus on Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday that Palestinian prisoners were in prison.
A bus transporting Palestinian prisoners later arrived at the control point at the Ramallah Cultural Palace, where a great crowd gathered to celebrate their release.
Tens of Palestinian prisoners were later seen descending from the bus outside the hospital to Khan Younis, Gaza.
Palestinian prisoners who are expected to be released will include more than 400 Gazans who have detained the Israeli forces during the war and 50 prisoners who served life sentences in Israeli prisons.
Along with the prison of Ofer on the west coast, Israel said that prisoners would be released from Ketziot prison in southern Israel.
The HAMAS prisoner’s media office said the Gaza Hospital was preparing to receive the Palestinians’ reached.
Tsachi Idan, 50, took Hamas Gunmen from his house to Nahal Oz. His oldest child, Maayan – who just turned 18 – was shot in the attack. In August, Tsachi’s wife, Gali, told us the TV that the last she had heard of her husband was a report of the published hostages in November 2023.
In a statement through the hostage forums and missing families, Tsachi’s family said that “with great sadness” learned “our beloved Tsachi was no longer alive and that his body would be returned to Israel during the night.”
Itzik Elgarat, 69, was abducted from Nir Oz, and allegedly fired in his hand during the attack. His phone followed Gaza after the attack.
Ohad Yahalomi, 50, is abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son Eitan, which was released during November.
In February 2025. IDF said he had informed the Shlomo Mansour family born in Iraq, 86, that Hamas killed him on October 7, 2023 and his body was taken to Gaza.
The exchange is final before the current phase of the interruption agreement is completed on Saturday.
It remains unclear whether the truce will be extended or progress to the second phase, which will see the release of all the remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for multiple Palestinian prisoners.
Negotiations for the second phase were supposed to start during the first phase – but it is believed that they have yet to start.
The hostage edition on Wednesday follows the days of downtime between Israel and Hamas – which the mediators solved on Tuesday.
Israel was supposed to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, in exchange for six living and four dead hostages Hamas handed over last week.
But Israel has postponed the editionin protest because of what was said that Hamas’s cruel treatment was to Israeli hostages while handed over them.
Also on Wednesday thousands of Israeli coated the roads of southern Israel For a funeral procession of three hostages killed in captivity In Gaza – Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir.
The Israeli TV channels wore a live Feed scene and – after a private burial – publicly called from relatives, and the crowds gathered for watching on the large screens on the hostage of Tel Aviva.
Kfir, nine months old, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, was the youngest of 251 hostages built in the attacks of Hamas on October 7, 2023. His brother Ariel had only four.
Shiri Bibas and her children were buried in one suitcase next to the last resting place of their parents, Yossi and Margita Silberman, who lived in the same Kibutz and were killed there on October 7th.
A total of about 1,200 people were killed and 251 people took hostage. He encouraged the most deadly war in the history of Gaza, in which more than 48,000 people were killed, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
