"Without ceremony": Hamas hands over bodies of four Israeli hostages

The remains of four more Israeli hostages are on their way home. The radical Islamist Hamas is handing them over to the Red Cross. Unlike before, there is no ceremony this time.

According to media reports, the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip has handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to representatives of the Red Cross. Israeli media reported this late in the evening, citing Israeli government officials. The Islamist Hamas in Gaza also confirmed the handover to the Red Cross.

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office had previously announced that an agreement had been reached on the manner of the handover. In particular, this time there was no ceremony with armed fighters and loud music when the coffins were handed over to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip. Israel had insisted on this beforehand.

In return, around 600 Palestinian prisoners are to be released from Israeli prisons. Eyewitnesses reported that a first bus with almost 40 prisoners set off from the Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank towards Ramallah. The prisoners were originally supposed to be released last Saturday in exchange for six Israeli hostages. Among them are 50 people with life sentences.

Israel had suspended the release of the Palestinians after receiving the six hostages last Saturday. The Jewish state had justified this step with the degrading ceremonies that Hamas had staged during the previous handovers of living and dead hostages to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip.

Identity will only be confirmed after examination

Israel did not want to confirm the identity of the bodies that had now been handed over until they had been examined. According to media reports and relatives, the remains were those of four Israeli men between the ages of 50 and 86. Three of them had been kidnapped from two kibbutzim near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023. The fourth man had been killed in the raid by Hamas and other groups on southern Israel that day; the terrorists had taken his body to Gaza.

Hamas has always used the release of hostages as a demonstration of power and a spectacle for onlookers. The kidnapped people were often paraded on a stage and given visible instructions by armed Islamists to smile and wave to the waiting crowd. Last weekend, an Israeli was also forced to kiss two masked Hamas members on the forehead.

The handover of the bodies of Israeli hostages, including two small children who are also German citizens, was also internationally criticized last Thursday. Hamas had laid out the coffins on a stage, and numerous cheering onlookers and dozens of masked Islamists gathered at the handover site while loud music played.

59 hostages still held by Islamists - many of them dead

As part of the first phase of the multi-stage agreement between Israel and Hamas, 33 hostages, including eight dead, were to be released. This has now been fully implemented. In return, 1,904 Palestinian prisoners were to be released. The first phase is officially scheduled to end this weekend.

According to the Qatari Foreign Ministry, the agreement stipulates that the first phase can continue as long as both sides negotiate the second phase, which is intended to lead to a definitive end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages. The fighting could therefore remain suspended - although both warring parties have reportedly not yet held any serious negotiations about the second phase - contrary to what was planned.

A total of 59 hostages are now being held in the Gaza Strip, but only 27 of them are said to be alive. The war was triggered by the attack by Hamas and other extremist groups on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 Israelis were taken hostage to the Gaza Strip. Since then, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip, more than 48,300 people have been killed, including many women and minors.