Hamas handed over the bodies of four hostages, and Israel released the Palestinian prisoners. The five-week-old ceasefire appeared to have returned to orbit after a violation that led to fears of returning to the war in Gaza.
The hostage bodies were moved to the Red Cross in southern Gaza and were forced to the border point of Kelem Shalom around midnight. Meanwhile, a fleet of buses carrying Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah, the city on the west bank of the Jordan River. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 43 Palestinians detained by Ofer had been moved to the Red Cross.
The group got off the bus and cheered hundreds of people outside.
It was unknown that the Palestinian numbers had been released overnight on Wednesday, but it was unclear whether all 602 prisoners scheduled to be released by Israel on Saturday will be included in the exchange in exchange for six surviving Israeli hostages.
The six hostages had been transferred by Hamas according to the agreed schedule, but on Saturday night, Palestinian prisoners sat on the bus waiting for their transfer, so the Benjamin Netanyahu government decided not to release them at the final moments and returned them to their cells.
The government said it had stopped the exchange in protest of the complaint that Hamas had staged a propaganda ceremony to hand over the bodies of hostages and Israelis killed in captivity.
Since then, Hamas has agreed to keep the bodies of the four hostages away from cameras, and in return, Netanyahu's government will proceed with the release of prisoners. However, Israeli prison authorities did not specify whether Palestinians would be released at once. One Israeli official is reportedly saying it will be released in batches.
Palestinian detainees to be released include 445 men, 24 women and minors arrested in Gaza, and 151 prisoners serving life sentences for a fatal attack on Israelis.
The bodies handed over to the Red Cross shortly after midnight on Thursday morning were named by Hamas Shlomo Mantoul, Tsach Idan, Ohad Yaharomi and Itzhak Elgarat. The IDF said the body's identity has not been verified yet.
Idan's parents said they were alive when they were hostages in Hamas on October 7, 2023, according to a statement released by Hostage and Missing Family Forum, a group representing hostage families.
“We received some life signs as Tsachi was lured. In a previous deal last November, Tsachi was expected to be alive and released,” the family wrote. “We are still waiting for the necessary certainty. We can only receive it after he arrives in Israel, and all necessary exams will be conducted by licensed state authorities.”
The latest exchange accused the UN Human Rights chief on Wednesday of showing an unprecedented disregard for human rights in military operations in Gaza, saying Hamas had violated international law.
“Nothing justifies the horrifying way Israeli carried out a military operation that consistently violated international law in Gaza,” Volker Turk, presenting the Geneva Human Rights Council with a new report on the human rights situation in Gaza in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel.
“From homes to hospitals to schools, the level of devastation in Gaza is enormous,” he added, “the restrictions imposed by Israel … created a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Türk said:
The exchange and reopening of ceasefire contracts follows Israel's National Grief Day, with thousands of Israelis waving flags, clutching candles, singing the national anthems, lined up on the route of funeral processions with two small children and two small children raised in Gaza.
The body of Bevers was handed over by Hamas last week. Hamas said he was killed in an airstrike. An Israeli autopsy report determined that the children were killed by prisoners and was cut to simulate the wounds caused by the bombing.
The funeral was held in the town of Tsarhar, near the border between Gaza and Nir Oz Kibbutz, where the family lived. The ceremony was private, but mourners lined up on roads with Israeli flags and yellow flags to watch the cortage pass by, with Israeli flags and yellow flags, symbols of hostage families and supporters.
With the relocation of the bodies of four hostages and the release of 600 Palestinians, the two sides complete their obligations for the first six weeks of the ceasefire. The second phase, which begins on the weekend, will include the release of all remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but negotiations on details will not yet begin days before the weekend deadline.
One possibility being studied to keep the ceasefire alive during negotiations for the second phase is to extend the first phase, but it has not yet been agreed whether more hostages and prisoners will be released during the extension.
