Khan Younis (Gaza Strip), February 27 - Days before the first phase of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip ends, Hamas handed over the bodies of four prisoners to the Red Cross early Thursday in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners by Israel. Israeli security officials confirmed the bodies had been handed over to the Red Cross.
Israel said the coffins containing the bodies had been transported through the Israeli border with the help of Egyptian mediators and that the identification process had begun.
A Red Cross convoy left Israel's Ofer prison at about the same time carrying several dozen freed Palestinian prisoners. A crowd of jubilant families, friends and supporters gathered in the West Bank town of Betunia.
They congratulated the freed prisoners, hugged them and posed for pictures. The freed man, carried on the shoulders of supporters, made a winning gesture. The crowd chanted “God is great.” Many of them were detained after the October 7, 2023 attacks and were never charged.
Israel had suspended the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in protest at Hamas’s mistreatment of the prisoners. The terror group Hamas called the delay a “serious violation” of the ceasefire and said that the second phase of talks would not be possible until the Palestinians were released.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that unlike the Israeli prisoners previously released by Hamas, the bodies of the hostages would be handed over without any ceremony. There would be no crowds or any kind of stage set up. Israeli, Red Cross and UN officials had called the staging of the prisoner release "insulting."
Most of the Palestinian prisoners released by Israel on Thursday morning were those arrested in Gaza. They were held without charge for months on suspicion of terrorism after Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack. According to lists shared by Palestinian authorities, they include 445 men, 21 boys and one woman.
However, the ages of none of them were given. Under the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas has released 33 prisoners, including eight bodies, in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.