Israel is poised to bring in the bodies of four hostages from Gaza on Thursday and hopes to bring home six living captives on Saturday, an Israeli security official said Monday.
If both handovers go according to plan, just four of the 33 hostages scheduled for release in the first phase of the ceasefire deal will still be in Gaza, all assumed dead. The Qatar-Egypt-brokered deal has been tested but is still on track despite both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of breaching its terms.
Hamas blamed Israel for blocking the entry of shelter material for Gazan displaced, but Israel said it was not true. Yet Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, confirmed that mobile homes were held up at the border.
Israel is leveraging its position to expedite the release of hostages, exchanging them for Palestinian prisoners and detainees while also withdrawing troops from Gaza. “Our priority is to bring back the hostages, particularly those who are alive,” Elkin told public broadcaster Kan.
So far, 19 Israeli hostages and five Thai nationals have been released. Hamas has stated that 25 of the 33 captives in the first phase are alive.
During negotiations, US President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle Palestinians and build Gaza under American control has caused controversy. Nevertheless, negotiations on a second phase of the agreement, including the return of the remaining hostages and additional Israeli withdrawals, are in progress.
An Israeli delegation has traveled to Cairo, and the security cabinet has sanctioned senior-level talks in Qatar. “The central problem in phase two is on what terms the war will end,” Elkin stated.
The hostages were captured during Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023, cross-border raid, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis. In retaliation, Israel’s incursion has left more than 48,000 Palestinians dead, health officials reported, and uprooted hundreds of thousands.
