Israel releases Palestinian prisoners after Hamas hands over bodies of four hostages

JERUSALEM — Early on Thursday, Israel began releasing more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, with dozens returned to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, where they were met by jubilant crowds.

Hamas has handed over what it says are the bodies of four Israeli hostages from Gaza, in exchange for the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. It will be the final exchange of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is due to end on Saturday.

Israel is testing DNA samples to confirm they are the remains of Shlomo Mansour, 86, Ohad Yahalomi, 50, Tsachi Idan, 50, and Itzik Elgarat, 69, all of whom were taken by Hamas in the 7 October 2023 attacks.

Israel is yet to confirm the results of DNA tests carried out on the four bodies returned as part of the exchange.

Initial tests were expected to happen close to the Israel-Gaza border, and Israeli media later reported they were transported to a forensics laboratory in Tel Aviv.

It comes after the body of a Palestinian woman from Gaza was handed over by Hamas to Israel instead of the body of Israeli Shiri Bibas last Thursday, provoking fury in Israel. Hamas said it was a misidentification and later handed a body over to Israel confirmed to be that of Bibas.

Hamas handed the bodies over privately, with no public ceremony, as Israel demanded, unlike in previous exchanges.

Israel has accused Hamas of "humiliating" handover ceremonies — and delayed last weekend's prisoner release because of what it said was the cruel treatment of hostages at the handovers.

Before Wednesday's releases, a Hamas official told the AFP news agency that the return of the four bodies would take place "without public presence to prevent the occupation from finding any pretext for delay or obstruction".

Photos released by the Reuters news agency showed a bus carrying what are believed to be Palestinian prisoners out of Ofer Prison in the West Bank late on Wednesday.

A bus carrying Palestinian prisoners later arrived at a checkpoint at the Ramallah Cultural Palace, where a large crowd has gathered to celebrate their release.

Later, dozens of Palestinian prisoners were seen getting off buses outside a hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza.

The Palestinian prisoners expected to be released include more than 400 Gazans detained by Israeli forces during the war and 50 prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails.

Along with Ofer prison in the West Bank, Israel earlier said prisoners would also be released from Ketziot prison in southern Israel.

The Hamas-run Prisoners' Media Office said a hospital in Gaza was preparing to receive the released Palestinians.

Tsachi Idan, 50, was taken away by Hamas gunmen from his home in Nahal Oz. His eldest child, Maayan — who had just turned 18 — was shot dead in the attack. In August, Tsachi's wife, Gali, told US TV that the last she had heard of her husband was a report from released hostages in November 2023.

In a statement via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Tsachi's family said it is "with great sadness" that they have learned "our beloved Tsachi is no longer alive and that his body will be returned to Israel during the night".

Itzik Elgarat, 69, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, and reportedly shot in the hand during the attack. His phone was traced to Gaza after the attack.

Ohad Yahalomi, 50, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.

In February 2025, the IDF said it had informed the family of Iraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 86, that he was killed by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and his body taken to Gaza.

The exchange is the final one before the current phase of the ceasefire deal ends on Saturday.

It remains unclear whether the truce will be extended, or progress to phase two, which would see the release of all remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners.

Negotiations for phase two were due to start during phase one — but it is believed they have yet to begin.

Wednesday's hostage release follows days of impasse between Israel and Hamas - which was resolved by mediators on Tuesday.

Israel had been supposed to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, in exchange for the six living and four dead hostages handed over by Hamas last week.

But Israel delayed the release, in protest at what it said was Hamas's cruel treatment of Israeli hostages as they were handed over.

Also on Wednesday, thousands of Israelis lined the roads of southern Israel for the funeral procession of three hostages who were killed in captivity in Gaza — Shiri Bibas, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir.

Kfir, aged nine months, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, was the youngest of the 251 hostages snatched in the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks. His brother, Ariel, was just four.

Shiri Bibas and her children were buried in a single casket next to the final resting place of her parents, Yossi and Margit Silberman, who lived in the same kibbutz and were killed there on 7 October.

In total, some 1,200 people were killed and 251 people taken hostage. It ignited the deadliest war in Gaza's history, in which more than 48,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. — BBC