Gaza truce: Hamas to hand over 4 bodies, including Bibas children, and 6 living hostages

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 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.

Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, in pre-recorded 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 rumours”.

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

Kfir, who was nine months old at the time, was the youngest hostage taken in Hamas’ October 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.