JERUSALEM – Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said earlier Thursday that four more Israeli hostages were in Israel.
The office said it received the coffin of the Red Cross hostage after Hamas handed over the body to the group. Currently, Israel is undergoing an initial identification process.
Hamas said earlier that it will release Tsachi Idan, 49. Shlomo Mantzur, 85; Itzhak Elgarat, 68; Ohad Yahalomi, 49. Israel has not yet issued a confirmation that the body is the four hostages.
Abu Obaida, spokesman for Hamas Military Wings AL Qassam Brigade, told NBC News that Hamas will release the body under the terms of a ceasefire agreement established with Israel on January 19.
The four bodies are expected to be the final Israeli hostages in the first phase of the ceasefire in the five-week history, with 29 of them returning to 33 of the 33 agreed so far.
Four hostages handed over last week have also been dead, Hamas said it was the identity of a kidnapper and could derail the ceasefire.
About 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were supposed to hand over later last week. The Hamas Prisoner Media Office said 590 to 594 prisoners from Gaza are expected to be released on Wednesday night. The Israeli government has not confirmed this number.
The Prisoner Media Office said in a statement that preparations are underway in the European Gaza hospital at local time and that local time is expected to arrive from 10 p.m. to midnight.
Live videos from the Associated Press and Reuters showed leaving the prison earlier Thursday at local time. In one video, people are seen getting out of the car and gathering in Ramala.
The Israeli government has postponed their release, which is scheduled for last Saturday, after forensic tests showed that the coffin Hamas held had the image of Shiri Bibas, 32, and did not contain her body.
Bibas rests with her two young sons, 4 years old, and they were only nine months old when they were taken hostage by Hamas during a terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. ODED LIFSHITZ, the fourth institution handed over by Hamas last week, was 84 years old after his death, and he was buried on Tuesday.
As the funeral parade carried the coffins of Shiri Bibas, Kfir Bibas and Ariel Bibas, thousands watched and paid tribute on the street and passed with their family at the funeral of Rishon Lezion, Israel on February 26, 2025.
Israeli officials said about 250 hostages were taken, while Israeli officials said about 1,200 Israelis were killed. The attack sparked about a year and a half in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, where more than 48,300 people were killed in the enclave, according to the Hamas health authorities.
With the switch that takes place at night, Hamas seems ready to avoid repeating the previous handover scenario. Last week, the Coffin said that four Israeli hostages were included on the stage against the backdrop of propaganda.
The ceremony was widely condemned by human rights groups and the international community.
Shlomo Mantzur, one of the hostages handed over to the four dead on Wednesday, is the oldest of all who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.
Mantzur, 85, was caught from his gun at the home of Kibbutz Kisufim. His family still hopes to survive, but Israeli forces said earlier this month that he was killed on October 7 and his body was taken to Gaza.
Mantzur immigrated to Israel from Iraq at the age of 13 and survived the Jewish community of Farhud in Baghdad in 1941 and was killed 200 people.
Mantzur is the five fathers of Kibbutz Kisufim and the founder of Kibbutz Kisufim, who runs his own woodworking and clock restoration studio.
Tsachi Idan was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz after Palestinians held his family at gunpoint and killed Maayan, the oldest of his three children.
After using the family residence as an organizational point, the Hamas gunmen left his wife Gali and their two other children, then Yael, 11, and son, Shahar, and then 9. Yael told Israel Channel 12 last year that the gunman promised her father would return.
From the testimony of returning to the hostages, the whole family knew that Idan was still alive when he was in Gaza.
Itzhak Elgarat is a handyman for Kibbutz Nir Oz – Kibbutz has seen many people, including the Bibas family.
Elgarat, a dual Israeli citizen, grabbed a safe room in his home by calling his brother Dani.
Speaking on the Australian website Quillette last year, he said he heard Itzhak say, “Dani, this is the ending.” The location marking of his cell phone later indicated that he was in Gaza.
Danny said the hostages released in November 2023 told him that his brother was still alive.
Ohad Yahalomi guards the family’s safe room, injured and kidnapped at Kibbitz Nir Oz.
His wife and their three children (12 and 10) and a third toddler were caught and sat on a motorcycle.
When their 12-year-old son Eitan was taken to Gaza alone and was released in November 2023, the mother and her two daughters managed to escape, hiding in the fields around Kibbutz until they could return to their hometown.
This article was originally published on nbcnews.com.
