Bodies of four hostages identified after latest Hamas-Israel exchange

The bodies of four hostages handed over by the Palestinian militant group Hamas to Israel on Wednesday have been identified after the latest exchange between the two sides saw hundreds of Palestinians released from prisons.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said on Thursday that the bodies have been identified by the Israeli government as Shlomo Mantzur, Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat and Ohad Yahalomi.

All four were taken hostage during the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Under the terms of the ceasefire deal agreed in January, all 33 hostages - 25 alive and eight dead - due to be released by Hamas during the first phase are now back in Israel.

According to the relatives' forum, 59 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, although only 27 are believed to be still alive.

The latest handover was carried out without the scenes witnessed during previous weeks, when armed Hamas fighters were present in front of loud crowds.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it had a reached an agreement over the terms of the handover with Hamas.

In return, 596 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons overnight, according to Palestinian sources.

A further 46 were to follow as soon as the bodies were identified.

Israel was due to release a total of 1,904 Palestinians during the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is set to end this weekend.

The second phase of the ceasefire is intended to definitively end the Gaza war, with Hamas releasing any remaining hostages and the Israeli army completing its withdrawal from Gaza.

However, reports say the negotiations on a second phase have not properly begun.

Hamas said in a statement that further hostages would only be released if Israel adhered to the ceasefire agreement and entered into talks on the second phase of the agreement via mediators.

However, reports emerged in Israeli media on Thursday that the Israeli military will not withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border, as stipulated in the ceasefire deal.

"We will not leave the Philadelphi Corridor. We will not allow the Hamas murderers to again roam our borders with pickup trucks and guns, and we will not allow them to rearm through smuggling," the Times of Israel cited an Israeli official as saying.

According to the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces are to gradually withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor over a period of about a week, beginning this weekend.

In January, Israeli officials emphasized that the military would not leave the coastal strip until all hostages were back home.

Netanyahu is also under pressure from his far-right coalition partners, who are calling for the war to continue until Hamas is completely destroyed.