The bodies of Shiri Bibas, and her two children; Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz were handed over to Red Cross representatives in Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the army and the Shin Bet domestic security service received caskets containing the four bodies from the Red Cross.
It added the bodies will be identified at the Health Ministry’s Abu Kabir National Center of Forensic Medicine, after which an official notification will be given to their families.
Ahead of the handover, Hamas placed four black caskets on a stage in Khan Younis, behind which a banner was displayed depicting Netanyahu as Dracula, the infamous vampire, positioned above images of the Bibas family and Lifshitz.
Hamas has accused the Israeli government of killing the four hostages in deadly Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.
Thursday’s handover of bodies will be followed by the return of six living captives on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians, expected to be women and minors detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the first phase of an agreement intended to pave the way towards ending the war.
So far, 19 Israeli captives have been released, as well as five Thais who were returned in an unscheduled handover.
Negotiations for a second phase, expected to cover the return of about 60 remaining captives, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip to allow an end to the war, are expected to begin in the coming days.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, with thousands more remaining under the rubble of the bombed-out, besieged enclave.
