Gaza: Four hostage bodies handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross, before being transferred to Israel

An Israeli security official said on Thursday, February 27, that Hamas had handed over to the Red Cross the bodies of four Israeli hostages kidnapped by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023 and held since in Gaza, as part of the truce agreement.

"The four bodies were recently handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas," the official said.

"The four bodies were handed over recently and we are waiting for the release of the Palestinian prisoners," said a Hamas official, referring to the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas said earlier in the day that the body of French-Israeli Ohad Yahalomi was among those returned to the Jewish state. He was 49 when he was abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. His son Eitan , 12, who was released on November 27, 2023 during the first truce, was abducted separately.

Unlike other hostage handovers, living or dead, no ceremony was organized by Hamas "in accordance with Israeli demands," the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed. In return for this handover, Israel must release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners. A bus carrying some of them arrived in Ramallah, in the West Bank.

This is the latest exchange under the truce negotiated through the mediation of three countries, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, which came into force on January 19 in the Gaza Strip.

The terms of the second stage, which was supposed to begin on March 2 and lead to a definitive end to the war and the release of all hostages still held in Gaza, have still not been negotiated.

On Tuesday evening, however, US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, reported "a lot of progress" toward a resumption of talks. He announced that Israel was sending a team of negotiators "either to Doha or Cairo, where negotiations will begin." A point that has not been confirmed by Israel.

For this second phase, Hamas said it was ready to hand over all remaining hostages to Israel "in one go."