Israel Identity unclear: Hamas claims to have handed over dead hostages
The Islamist terrorist organization Hamas has handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip to representatives of the Red Cross.
27.02.2025, 04:02
SDA
Israeli government officials confirmed to local media late in the evening that the remains had been handed over - although the dead still had to be identified and the relatives informed, it was said. Autopsy results were not initially announced during the night.
As requested by the Israeli government, this time the handover was not staged as a macabre spectacle with armed Hamas fighters and loud music as the coffins were handed over. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, an agreement had been reached with the Islamists in advance. His government had made this a precondition for the release of further Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
In return for the handover of the dead hostages, around 600 Palestinian prisoners are to be released. According to eyewitnesses, a first bus with almost 40 prisoners left the Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank for Ramallah. The Arabic television station Al-Jazeera later showed footage of them being welcomed jubilantly as they were reunited with their relatives.
The prisoners - including 50 with life sentences - were originally supposed to have been released on Saturday last week in exchange for six Israeli hostages. However, out of anger at the degrading Hamas ceremonies at previous handovers of live and dead hostages, Israel's government put a stop to this and suspended the releases for the time being.
Identity to be confirmed only after investigation
In view of the falsely reported handover of dead hostages a few days ago, which - as was only discovered afterwards - were the mortal remains of other people, the Israeli government remained cautious this time. It only wanted to confirm the identity after forensic examinations of the bodies.
According to media reports and relatives, the remains are believed to be those of four Israeli men aged between 50 and 86. Three of them were abducted from two Jewish settlements near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. The fourth man was killed that day when Hamas and other Islamist terrorists attacked southern Israel and his body was taken to Gaza.
Hamas has always used the release of hostages as a show of force and turned the fate of people held captive for many months under cruel conditions into a spectacle for onlookers. The abductees were often paraded on a stage and given visible instructions by armed Islamists to smile and wave to the waiting crowd. Last weekend, an Israeli had to kiss two masked Hamas men on the forehead.
The procedure for handing over four dead hostages last Thursday - including two small children who are also German nationals - also met with international outrage. Hamas had laid out the coffins on a stage, while numerous cheering onlookers and dozens of masked Islamists gathered at the site of the handover and loud music was played.
59 hostages still held by Islamists - many of them dead
If the identity of the bodies now handed over is confirmed, the handover of 33 hostages from the Gaza Strip - including eight dead - as planned in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas would be complete. In return, 1,904 Palestinian prisoners would be released. The first phase of the agreement is due to officially end at the weekend.
According to the Qatari government, which acted as mediator, the agreement stipulates that the first phase can continue as long as both parties to the conflict are negotiating the second phase. This should lead to a definitive end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages. The fighting could therefore remain suspended - although both warring parties have reportedly not yet held any serious negotiations on the second phase, contrary to what was planned. It is believed that 59 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, but only 27 of them are still alive.
59 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip
The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre on October 7, 2023, in which Hamas terrorists and other Islamists killed around 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 others from Israel to the Gaza Strip. Since then, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip, more than 48,300 people have been killed, including many women and minors. The figures make no distinction between fighters and civilians and cannot be independently verified, but are considered fairly credible by the United Nations.
