By Nafisa Eltahir and Rami Amichay
CAIRO/RISHON LEZION, Israel (Reuters) – Hamas agreed to release the last hostage bodies included in phase one of the Gaza ceasefire deal, in a breakthrough announced as Israelis mourned a family seen as a symbol of the trauma suffered by Israel in the attack on October 7, 2023.
The end of a days-long standoff over the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners was announced on Wednesday as Israel prepared for the funeral of the Bibas family following the handover of the bodies of nine-month-old Kfir Bibas, his four year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri last week.
The youngest hostages seized during the attack on Israel by gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023 were killed weeks after they were abducted into Gaza.
Yarden Bibas, the father of the boys, who was captured separately from his family, was released during an exchange of hostages and prisoners earlier this month.
Hamas says the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike but Israel says it has intelligence and forensic evidence that shows they were killed by their captors using their bare hands.
Thousands of people, some in tears, carrying blue and white Israeli flags or photographs of the family, walked in procession or waited as a convoy bearing the coffins passed on their way to the funeral. Many were carrying orange balloons, a new symbol of mourning for the hostages, matching the red hair of the two Bibas boys.
“It’s horrific and it’s something that is very difficult to come to terms with, said 53-year-old clinical psychologist, Lihie Gilhar in Rishon Lezion. “It’s the little bit that we can do to show our solidarity with the family,” she said.
For Israelis, the family has become an emblem of the trauma that has haunted their country since the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel’s attack on Gaza in response has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians and destroyed most of the coastal enclave but fighting has stopped since the fragile ceasefire agreement, brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators last month.
Under the deal, Hamas agreed to hand over 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from some of their positions in Gaza as well as a massive influx of aid.
BREAKTHROUGH SECURED
On Wednesday, Egyptian mediators confirmed they had secured a breakthrough that should allow the handover of the final four hostage bodies due in the first phase this week after a days-long standoff.
Hamas confirmed that an agreement had been reached for the exchange of hostages for prisoners, but said the date of their release would be announced “at the right time” under a new mechanism. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government.
Israel had refused to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday after accusing Hamas of breaching the ceasefire deal by staging what it considered an offensive public handover of hostages in Gaza.
Days earlier, the agreement was held up briefly when Hamas handed over the remains of an unidentified woman instead of Shiri Bibas before delivering the correct body the next day.
Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, a Gaza-based militant group allied to Hamas, said on its Telegram channel that it would release the body of hostage Ohad Yahalomi on Thursday but it was not clear when the three other bodies would follow.
With the 42-day truce due to expire on Saturday, it also remains unclear whether an extension will be agreed or whether negotiations can begin on a second stage of the deal, which would see the release of the final 59 hostages left in Gaza.
Hams said that, so far, it had not received any proposal for the second stage.
Despite numerous hiccups, the ceasefire deal has so far held up but moving to a second phase would require agreements on issues that have proved impossible to bridge in the past, including the postwar future of Gaza and Hamas, which Israel has vowed to eliminate as a governing force.
(Additional reporting by Clauda Tanios and Jana Choukeir in Dubai; writing by James Mackenzie)
