JNS
Hamas handed over remains it said were of Tsachi Idan, Ohad Yahalomi, Itzik Elgarat and Shlomo Mansour to the Red Cross en route to their return to Israel, “Al Jazeera” reported.
The Israeli Prime Minister's Office confirmed on Wednesday that four coffins returned from the Gaza Strip are in Israeli custody and that the process to confirm the identities of the remains is underway.
The Hamas terror organization handed over remains that it said were of Israelis Tsachi Idan, Ohad Yahalomi, Itzik Elgarat and Shlomo Mansour to the Red Cross at around midnight in Gaza on Wednesday for passage into Israel, Al Jazeera reported.
The Prime Minister's Office said that the families of the men would be officially notified when the identification process was complete. Hamas has previously misidentified remains.
Egypt mediated the deal, which will see Israel release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, including dozens serving life sentences for terror offenses.
“Pursuant to Israel’s demands, agreement has been reached with the mediators: Four of our deceased hostages will be returned tonight in the framework of the first stage, in an agreed-upon procedure and without Hamas ceremonies,” the Israeli prime minister’s office stated earlier in the day.
The deal resolved an impasse in the exchange schedule of Phase 1 of the ceasefire-for-hostages deal after Israel paused the release of prisoners slated to be freed on Feb. 22.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the halt “in light of Hamas’s repeated violations, including the ceremonies that humiliate our hostages and the cynical exploitation of our hostages for propaganda purposes.”
The bodies purportedly of the four slain hostages, which had originally been scheduled for release on Thursday, were instead released on Wednesday without the parade-like display of coffins accompanied by masked gunmen from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups that characterized past exchanges, according to Al Jazeera.
Those scenes sparked outrage within Israel and from world leaders.
Ahead of the release, Idan’s family stated that it “received with great sorrow the announcement from Hamas that our beloved Tsachi is no longer among the living and that his body will be returned to Israel during the night,” Arutz Sheva reported.
“We are all still awaiting the longed-for certainty, which we can only obtain after his arrival in Israel and the completion of all necessary examinations by the authorized state authorities while preserving the privacy of Tsachi and his family,” it added.
The Jewish Federations of North America issued a statement saying it mourned and prayed for the families of the four men.
"The last several weeks have been tragic in many ways, yet we remain amazed and proud of the resilience of the Israeli people as they stand strong during these times of grief," the group stated. "Jewish Federations stand in solidarity and pray with them during these times of mourning."
Speaking at the first cabinet meeting of his second term earlier on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he was “very disappointed” that the four were killed in captivity.
“We got a lot of hostages back, but it’s very sad,” Trump said. “This is a vicious group of people, and Israel is going to have to decide what they're doing.”
Idan, Yahalomi, Elgarat and Mansour are the final four of the 33 hostages agreed to be released in Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal due to expire on Sunday. More than 60 living and dead hostages, mostly male soldiers, remain in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas have not yet entered into Phase 2 negotiations, which would see the release of the remaining living hostages in exchange for Israel’s full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a permanent cessation of hostilities.
The final bodies of dead hostages are not slated to be released until Phase 3, which includes rebuilding the Palestinian enclave.
