DaysofPal– Hamas has handed over the bodies of a woman, her two children, and an 83-year-old Israeli man who were taken captive during the October 2023 attack.
The bodies were transferred to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Thursday. Four men carried the coffins one by one from the stage to the Red Cross vehicles.
A Hamas spokesperson said that all four captives were alive before “Zionist occupation aircraft deliberately bombed the locations where they were being held.” The group stated that it had “preserved the lives of the occupation prisoners,” provided them with available resources, and “treated them humanely, but their [Israel’s] army killed them along with their captors.”
“Criminal Netanyahu is crying today over the bodies of his prisoners who returned to him in coffins, in a blatant attempt to evade responsibility for their killing in front of his audience,” Hamas said.
Addressing the families of the deceased captives, the group added: “We would have preferred your sons to return to you alive, but your army and government leaders chose to kill them instead of bringing them back.”
Thursday’s handover of bodies will be followed by the return of six living captives on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinian detainees, mainly women and minors who were detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the first phase of an agreement aimed at paving the way toward ending the war. So far, 19 Israeli captives and five Thai nationals, who were freed in an unscheduled release, have been returned.
Negotiations for a second phase of the agreement are expected to begin in the coming days. This phase is set to address the return of approximately 60 remaining captives, less than half of whom are believed to be alive. It would also include discussions on a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza to facilitate an end to the war.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, with thousands more still trapped under the rubble in the besieged enclave.
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