Hamas Says To Hand Over Four Israeli Hostages’ Bodies In Private

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Hamas will skip its customary handover ceremony on Wednesday night when it returns the bodies of four Israeli hostages. More than 600 Palestinian prisoners will be freed in exchange, according to the militant group.

The final trade-off will be made in the tense ceasefire agreement that came into force on January 19 and will be the last.

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades have chosen to hand over the bodies of four hostages tonight, according to Hamas’ armed wing, according to a statement released on Wednesday.

A Hamas official told AFP that in return, Israel would release 625 Palestinian prisoners.

The official added that the four bodies’ return would be made in private “to stop the occupation from finding any pretext for delay or obstruct.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the handover was set for Wednesday night, “without Hamas ceremonies”.

In addition to holding hostages on stage, given certificates and gift bags, and frequently forced to speak in front of large crowds, Hamas has carried out similar handovers in public spaces.

Israel, which halted the planned release of prisoners during last week’s exchange in protest of what it called the “humiliating ceremonies,” has been outraged by the spectacles, especially one in which coffins carrying the remains of dead hostages were displayed.

The Palestinian prisoners who were delayed in their release would be freed as soon as the bodies were returned on Wednesday, according to a second Hamas official with knowledge of the situation.

He told AFP that Hamas would give the bodies of the four Israeli prisoners by midnight and that the Israeli government would also release the Palestinian detainees and prisoners from the seventh batch at the same time.

He added that a smaller number of Palestinian women and minors who were due to be freed in exchange for the bodies would be released once Israeli authorities had verified their identities.

Hamas consented to the mediators’ proposal, according to the official, “which was made.”

According to the Israel Prison Service, it was “making preparations for… the release of imprisoned terrorists in accordance with the agreement for the return of the hostages.”

It did not, however, give any indication of the timing of the releases.

– ‘ Negotiations will begin ‘ –

Israeli hostage Eliya Cohen, flanked by Palestinian Hamas fighters, gestures waves after being released along with two others as part of the seventh hostage-prisoner exchange,in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, on February 22, 2025. After two more Israeli hostages were released in the southern portion of the Palestinian territory, two more were released by Hamas militants at a ceremony in central Gaza on February 22. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

The ceasefire has largely halted the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and seen 25 hostages released alive so far in exchange for more than 1, 100 prisoners.

There have been sporadic incidents of violence, however.

After a projectile was fired from Gaza on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it carried out air strikes on several launch sites there, but the Israeli military said the Israeli military didn’t succeed in launching rockets inside the Palestinian territory.

Israeli representatives were reportedly on their way to discussions about the upcoming phase of the ceasefire, according to President Donald Trump’s top Middle Eastern envoy in Washington.

“We’re making a lot of progress. Steve Witkoff stated at a meeting for the American Jewish Committee that Israel is currently sending a team.

“Negotiations will start again with the Egyptians and Qataris in Doha or Cairo,” he said.

Although negotiations for the next stage, which were scheduled to begin in early February, have not yet begun, the first phase of the agreement is scheduled to wrap up on Saturday.

Hamas has said it is ready to release all the remaining hostages&nbsp, “in one go” during the second phase.

The group claimed on Sunday that Israel had delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners, putting an end to the Gaza truce.

– Minute’s silence –

Shiri Bibas and her sons, who were abducted in Gaza and had become symbols of the nation’s hostage ordeal, were buried in Israel on Wednesday.

The Israeli parliament held a minute of silence to mourn their deaths, as well as those of other victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

“Yesterday, the funeral of Oded Lifshitz took place, today, the funeral of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas is taking place. We are all in the October 7 victims’ minds. We remember, and we will not forget”, said speaker Amir Ohana.

Hamas and its allies took 251 hostages that day, with 62 still held in Gaza, 35 of whom are dead.

Following the most deadly attack in the country’s history, Israel pledged to destroy Hamas and has made bringing all the hostages back a top priority in the conflict.

The attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1, 215 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliation in Gaza has killed more than 48, 348 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures that the United Nations considers credible.

– ‘ Shiri, I’m sorry ‘ –

Father Yarden Bibas, who was abducted separately on October 7 and was later released alive in a previous exchange, apologised to his late wife and sons at the Bibas family funeral on Wednesday.

“Shiri, I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you all”, he said in his eulogy, his voice cracking.

In the central city of Rishon LeZion, where the remains of the three hostages had been prepared for burial, the Israeli national anthem was played as the funeral procession passed through the crowd of mourners.

Ayala Schlesinger Avidov, 72, a retired teacher, was visibly emotional when she spoke to AFP, claiming that “the Bibas family is like the symbol of everything that has happened to us since October 7”.