"The hearts of an entire nation lie in tatters," Israel's President Isaac Herzog has said, as the bodies of four hostages taken alive by Hamas in its attack on 7 October 2023 were returned to Tel Aviv.

Hamas says the bodies are those of a mother and two children from the Bibas family, whose unknown fate has gripped Israel, and Oded Lifschitz, 84, a veteran peace activist. Israel says it will confirm their identities after forensic examinations.

President Herzog wrote "there are no words" in a post on social media platform X, asking the four for forgiveness "for not bringing you home safely".

It is the first time Hamas has returned captives dead since the ceasefire began last month.

Six living hostages are due to be freed on Saturday.

The news that Shiri Bibas, 33, and her sons, who would now be aged five and two, were dead triggered an outpouring of grief across the country.

Hamas claimed in November 2023 they had been killed in an Israeli air strike, without providing evidence. The Israeli government never confirmed the claim.

Addressing Israelis in a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was "united in unbearable grief. Every home in Israel bows its head today.

"We all rage over the monsters of Hamas," he said.

A lawyer for Dr Sharone Lifschitz, the British-based daughter of Oded Lifschitz, said the day was "one of immense sadness, and of failure."

Early on Thursday morning, in choreographed scenes reminiscent of recent handovers of living hostages, four black coffins were laid out on a stage decked with propaganda in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in front of crowds of spectators.

One of the backdrops depicted a ghoulish image of Benjamin Netanyahu with fangs looming over a picture of the four hostages when they were alive. Another read: "The Return of the War = The Return of your Prisoners in Coffins".

One of those present, Ikram Abu Salout, told the BBC she was against handing over the bodies. "They didn't remove the rubble and we don't even know where our children and families are."

A Red Cross official appeared to sign documents at a table alongside armed Hamas fighters before the four coffins transferred to vehicles belonging to the humanitarian organisation.

United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said the handover was "abhorrent and cruel, and flies in the face of international law".

"We urge that all returns are conducted in privacy, and with respect and care," he added.

After the handover, the bodies were transferred to Israeli forces in Gaza and brought to Israel. People - many with Israeli flags and yellow ones representing the hostages - lined the streets as a police convoy with the coffins passed by. The bodies have been taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Jaffa, Israel, for post-mortems.

The Bibas family, and Oded Lifschtiz and his wife, were among residents taken from kibbutz Nir Oz when hundreds of Hamas gunmen burst through the border with Israel and attacked communities, security forces sites and a music festival.

About 1,200 people - mostly civilians - were killed in the attack and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military campaign against Hamas in response, which has killed at least 48,297 Palestinians - mainly civilians - according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Yarden Bibas, 35, was released on 1 February along with two other hostages as part of an exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Oded Lifschitz, a retired journalist, had been held by the armed Palestinian group Islamic Jihad. His wife Yocheved was freed by Hamas on 23 October 2023.

The release of hostages' bodies was agreed as part of the ceasefire deal which came into effect on 19 January. Israel has confirmed there will be eight.

The two sides agreed to exchange 33 hostages for about 1,900 prisoners by the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire.

Talks on progressing to the next phase of the deal - under which the remaining living hostages would be released and the war would end permanently - were due to start earlier this month but have not yet begun.

Twenty-eight hostages and more than 1,000 prisoners have so far been exchanged.

Sixty-six hostages taken on 7 October are still being held in Gaza. Three other hostages, taken more than a decade ago, are also being held. About half of all the hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by Raffi Berg

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