Hamas announces release of four corpses and six living hostages

Hamas announces release of four corpses and six living hostages

Hamas explained on Tuesday that it will be handed over to the corpse of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including the two youngest victims, Kfir and Ariel Bibas. In addition, the group wants to release six living hostages on Saturday, and not, as originally expected, only three, according to Khalil al-Hayya, head of the Hamas negotiation team, in an explanation.

agreement on the hostage handover

The Israeli Prime Minister's office confirmed on Tuesday that an agreement was made during the negotiations in Cairo: four hostages who died are to be handed over on Thursday and six living hostages on Saturday. It was also announced that "four other deceased hostages" will be handed over to Israel next week.

notification of families

A spokesman for the relatives of the relatives of hostages in Israel stated that the families of all hostages that are intended to release were informed for both the living and the deceased. In return, Israel is expected to expose Palestinian prisoners, as has already been the case in the past few weeks.

whereabouts of the Bibas children

This is the clearest indication that the children Bibas - who were only nine months and four years old in October 2023 - are actually dead. However, Israel has not yet confirmed the death of the children and has not yet responded to Hamas' announcement.

success of the negotiations

An Egyptian source, which is familiar with the matter, confirmed to CNN that discussions between Egyptian, Catar, Israeli and American officials were successful and that Hamas will release the remaining hostages in the first phase of the ceasefire on Saturday.

video and reactions

In November 2023, Hamas claimed that Kfir and Ariel Bibas had been killed in an Israeli air raid together with their mother. For this purpose, a video of her father Yarden, who was also held hostage and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the death of his family. An Israeli military spokesman rejected the video as a "psychological terror" at the time, but the military leadership informed relatives that the children may no longer be alive, according to a spokesman for the forum for hostages and missing.

The Bibas family in focus

On February 1, Yarden Bibas was released alive. The Bibas family, and especially KfIR, have become one of the most famous victims of the terrorist attacks on October 7th. Kfir's picture is depicted on many posters that have called for the hostages in Israel and worldwide. On one of these posters, the Rot-haaired baby Look directly into the camera with his toothless smile.

further negotiations in prospect

The announcement of Hamas fell on the day when Israel said that talks about the second phase of the GASA cautial arrest would begin. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced that the negotiations "this week" could begin after discussions with "our American friends". He promised to reach an agreement until the 42nd day of the ceasefire, as defined in the original deal, and called the possibility of a longer -term agreement an "option".

cnn’s Eugenia Yosef and Nadeen Ebrahim contributed to this report.