Hamas says it will release 6 hostages, bodies of 4 others in coming days

· France 24

A top Hamas leader says the militant group will release six living Israeli hostages on Saturday and the bodies of four others on Thursday, a surprise increase that apparently comes in return for Israel allowing mobile homes and construction equipment into the devastated Gaza Strip. 

The families of Gaza hostages Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avraham (Avera) Mengisto, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, and Hisham Al-Sayed have been informed that the six will be released alive, as reported in The Jerusalem Post. 

The six are the last living hostages set to be freed under the ceasefire’s first phase. The warring sides have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase, in which Hamas says it will release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Watch moreWhat are the details of the ceasefire deal in Gaza?

Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, in prerecorded remarks, said the “Bibas family” would be included in the handover of four bodies, apparently referring to Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who for many Israelis embody the captives' plight.

Israel has not confirmed their deaths, and the prime minister's office urged the public not to distribute “photos, names and rumors”.

Israel has said it was gravely concerned about the Bibas family, while Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. Yarden Bibas, the husband and father, was kidnapped separately and released this month.

Kfir, who was 9 months old at the time, was the youngest hostage taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. A video of the abduction showed Shiri swaddling her redheaded boys in a blanket and being whisked away by armed men.

A man holds a portrait of Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage to be kidnapped by Hamas militants on the October 7 attack together with his mother and brother, as Israelis holding balloons attend his first birthday celebration in Tel Aviv, on January 18, 2024. © Ahmad Gharabli, AFP

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had agreed to allow long-requested mobile homes and construction equipment into Gaza as part of efforts to accelerate the hostages' release.

Hamas last week threatened to hold up releases, citing the refusal to allow in mobile homes and heavy equipment among other alleged violations of the truce.

Israel is expected to continue releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including many serving life sentences for deadly attacks, in exchange for the hostages. Others were detained without charge.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)