Hamas is due to hand over the bodies of four hostages on Thursday, including those of the Bibas family, who have become symbols of the hostage crisis that has gripped Israel since the Gaza war broke out.

The transfer of the bodies is the first such handover of remains by Hamas since its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

The Palestinian militant group said the return of the bodies of Shiri Bibas, her two young boys —- Kfir and Ariel -— and a fourth captive, Oded Lifshitz, would take place in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

Footage of their abduction, filmed and broadcast by Hamas militants during their attack on Israel, showed the mother and her sons Ariel, then four, and Kfir, just nine months old, being seized from their home near the Gaza border.

Yarden Bibas, the boys’ father and Shiri’s husband, was abducted separately on October 7, 2023, and was released from the Gaza Strip in a previous hostage-prisoner exchange on February 1.

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The repatriation of their bodies is part of the first phase of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Thursday would be “a very difficult day for the State of Israel -— a heartbreaking day, a day of grief”.

Under the ceasefire’s first phase, 19 Israeli hostages have been released by militants so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners in a series of Red Cross-mediated swaps.

Of the remaining 14 Gaza hostages eligible for release under phase one, Israel says eight are dead.

The Bibas family members have become national symbols of the hostage ordeal, encapsulating the despair that has gripped the nation since the Hamas attack.

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While their deaths are largely accepted as fact abroad after Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war, Israel has never confirmed the claim and many remain unconvinced — including the Bibas family.

Late on Wednesday, the Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it had been informed about the “heart-shattering” news of the deaths of the three Bibas family members.

The Bibas family said it would wait for a confirmation from official channels.

“Should we receive devastating news, it must come through the proper official channels after all identification procedures are completed,” it said in a statement late Wednesday.

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Israeli authorities have not officially named any of those to be returned, but Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that it had received a list of the hostages whose bodies were to be handed over and that the families had been informed.

The National Forensic Medicine Institute in Tel Aviv has mobilised 10 doctors to expedite the identification process, public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday.

Israel and Hamas announced a deal earlier this week for the return of the remains of eight hostages in two groups this week and next, as well as the release of six living Israeli captives on Saturday.

The hostages forum named the six as Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al-Sayed, and Avera Mengistu.

The ceasefire in Gaza has been held despite accusations of violations on both sides.

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Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that talks would begin “this week” on the second phase, which is expected to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Wednesday that Hamas was ready to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during phase two.

He did not clarify how many hostages were currently being held by Hamas or other militant groups.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the attack, of whom 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP