Hamas and Israel agree to release six hostages on Saturday after returning the bodies of four others on Thursday

Israel and Hamas announced Tuesday an agreement to release six Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after the occupying state recovers the bodies of four hostages on Thursday.

Following Hamas’s announcement that among the four bodies were the last two children held in Gaza, the family of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, as well as their mother Sheri, who was kidnapped with them, reported that they had not received any official confirmation of their deaths.

“We were shocked by Hamas’ announcement of the scheduled return of our loved ones Sheri, Ariel and Kfir this Thursday,” she said in a statement, adding, “We clearly state that although we have been informed of this information, we have not yet received any confirmation in this regard”.

Earlier, the head of the Hamas negotiating delegation, Khalil al Hayya, said that the movement decided to hand over the bodies of four of Israeli hostages on Thursday, including the bodies of the Bibas family, and Israel will release on Saturday those of our prisoners it meets according to the agreement.

He added, “The handing over the remaining bodies agreed upon in the first phase will be completed in the sixth week of the agreement”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the bodies of the four hostages would be handed over on Thursday, before six more people would be released alive on Saturday.

The children’s father, Yarden Bibas, 35, was released on February 1, but the fate of his two children has been unknown for months.

The family was kidnapped during the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023.

The family was at their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, and Yarden Bibas was kidnapped separately.

That day, Hamas published photos of Sheri Bibas cradling her two children outside her home.

Kfir was eight and a half months old, the youngest of the 251 hostages held.

On January 19, a ceasefire went into effect in the Gaza Strip after a devastating 15-month war between the Hebrew state and Hamas.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Tuesday that negotiations would begin this week on the second phase of the truce, after it was supposed to begin on February 3.

“We demand complete demilitarization of Gaza… We’ll not accept the continued presence of Hamas or any other terrorist organization in Gaza,” he added at a press conference in Jerusalem.

In addition to the bodies of the four hostages, al Hayya said that Hamas movement and the factions decided to release next Saturday the remaining living occupation prisoners who were agreed to be released in the first phase, and their number is 6”.

The Hostages Families Forum on Tuesday published the names of the six hostages. In a statement, it welcomed the return this Saturday of Ilya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkret, Hisham al Sayed and Avera Mengistu (The latter two have been held in Gaza for a decade).

For its part, the Tal Shoham family said, “While we feel hopeful, we remain cautious and pray for Tal’s safe return”.

According to the fragile agreement, during this phase, 33 hostages held in Gaza will be released in exchange for 1,900 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Since the start of the first phase of the truce, which is supposed to end on March 1, 19 Israeli hostages and 1,134 Palestinian prisoners have been released.

After 500 days of hostage-taking, 70 people are still being held in Gaza, 35 of whom have died, according to the Israeli military.

The second phase of the agreement, scheduled to begin on March 2, is supposed to see the release of all hostages and an end to the war.

The third and final phase will be devoted to the reconstruction of Gaza, a massive project that the United Nations estimates has cost more than $53 billion.

Trump had proposed a plan that would place the Gaza Strip under US control and transfer its population of more than two million to Egypt and Jordan.

On Monday, Netanyahu said, “I pledged that after the war in Gaza there would be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority,” stressing that he must adhere to Trump’s post-war plan for the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he decided to establish a directorate in the Ministry of Defense for the voluntary departure of Gaza residents, while the far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Hamas to hand over its weapons and leave the Gaza Strip.