Hamas returns bodies of 4 hostages to Israel in final exchange of this ceasefire

Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages while it waited for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in return, in an overnight exchange marking the final swap as part of a fragile truce in Gaza.

The six-week ceasefire came into effect on Jan. 19 and has largely held, despite numerous setbacks. But its first phase is due to end this week and the fate of its next phase, which aims to end the war, remains unclear. 

There are 54 hostages still held in Gaza. Israeli authorities believe fewer than half are still alive.

Hamas said on Thursday that it was ready to start talks on the second phase, and that the only way remaining hostages would be freed is through commitment to the ceasefire.

"We renew our full commitment to the ceasefire agreement, and confirm our readiness to enter into negotiations for the second phase of the agreement," the group said in a statement.

After days of impasse, Egyptian mediators on Wednesday secured the handover of the final four hostage bodies in the deal's first phase, for 620 Palestinians either detained by Israeli forces in Gaza or jailed in Israel.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on X on Thursday that the bodies of the four Israeli hostages Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur had been identified.

"In this painful moment, there is some solace in knowing that they will be laid to rest in dignity in Israel," he wrote.

Idan, Yahalomi and Elgarat were murdered in captivity in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said, while Mantzur was killed on Oct. 7, 2023 during the Hamas attack.

There was no immediate response from Hamas to the allegation the hostages had been killed in captivity. 

Tensions over prior ceremonies

The final handover did not include a ceremony. Hamas had been criticized by the United Nations and Israeli officials after displaying coffins carrying hostage remains on stage in front of a crowd in Gaza during a recent exchange.

Israel received coffins carrying the remains of the four hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in the early hours of Thursday.

Israel and Hamas were supposed to start negotiations over the second phase of the agreement on the 16th day of the ceasefire, but there has been little indication of progress.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen told public broadcaster Kan that Israel demanded that its military stay in the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs the length of Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

Israeli troops are supposed to start withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border area on Saturday, when the first phase of the ceasefire is set to end.

Cohen said Israel was in a stronger position to negotiate now than it was on the eve of the ceasefire because it has full backing from the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, which this month began shipping heavy bombs.

Hundreds of Palestinians released

The Palestinians released overnight include 445 men and 24 women and minors detained in Gaza, as well as 151 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, according to a Hamas source.

A bus carrying some of the released Palestinian prisoners left Israel's Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and arrived in the Palestinian city of Ramallah a few minutes later, live footage showed.

The group got off the bus to cheers from hundreds congregated outside, with some of the released men — clad in green jackets and keffiyehs — hoisted aloft by the crowd.

Released prisoner Bilal Yassin, 42, told Reuters he had been in Israeli detention for 20 years.

"Our sacrifices and imprisonment were not in vain," Yassin said. "We had confidence in the [Palestinian] resistance."

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Nearly 100 more Palestinian prisoners were handed over to Egypt, where they will stay until another country accepts them, according to a Hamas source and Egyptian media.

At least 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, Palestinian authorities say. The war has laid waste to the crowded coastal enclave and displaced the majority of its population multiple times.

Hamas and other Palestinian militants took 251 hostages and killed about 1,200 people, including several Canadian citizens, on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Israeli government. Around half of the hostages were freed during the war's only previous truce in November 2023, and others have been recovered alive or dead during the war.