Hamas on Wednesday launched the stays of what it stated had been 4 Israeli hostages, the final in a gaggle of eight former captives and 25 residing ones who had been slated for repatriation within the first part of a fragile cease-fire deal between Israel and the militant group.
Hamas’s navy wing stated the stays belonged to Shlomo Mansour, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi, and Tsachi Idan — Israelis kidnapped throughout the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel that began the conflict. Israel didn’t instantly remark.
The discharge adopted a number of fraught days of negotiations, after Israel refused on Saturday to ship 620 Palestinian prisoners whom it had agreed to trade for six Israeli hostages. Since late January, when the cease-fire went into impact, Israel and Hamas have been often exchanging hostages taken to Gaza for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
After Hamas launched the six Israelis on Saturday — most of them in performative occasions designed to indicate the militant group’s continued management in Gaza — Israel refused to free the Palestinian prisoners, saying it might not achieve this till Hamas dedicated to releasing extra hostages and forgoing “humiliation ceremonies.”
Earlier than returning hostages, Hamas has usually paraded them by way of shouting throngs of the group’s supporters, enraging Israeli officers. Final week, earlier than Hamas handed over coffins stated to include the stays of 4 captives, the militant group staged a show with music and taunts aimed on the Israeli authorities. Volker Türk, the United Nations human rights chief, known as the occasion “abhorrent and merciless.”
Israeli authorities had forensic groups current on the handover to try an preliminary identification of the our bodies, the Well being Ministry stated, after which they’d be taken to Israel’s Institute of Forensic Drugs.
Israel is anticipated to free the 620 Palestinian prisoners after it has confirmed the identities of the 4 returned our bodies.
Right here’s a better have a look at the deceased hostages Hamas stated it launched.
Shlomo Mansour
Mr. Mansour was 85 years old when Hamas led the assault on Israel in 2023. He was the oldest hostage taken, and his demise was not confirmed till not too long ago. This month, the Israeli authorities stated that Mr. Mansour had been killed in the initial attack and that his physique had been taken to Gaza.
In the course of the assault, militants stormed the house of Mr. Mansour and his spouse, Mazal Mansour, in Kibbutz Kissufim, close to the Gaza border. Armed males dragged them each outdoors the place they handcuffed Mr. Mansour and beat him, his daughter advised Israeli news media. His spouse managed to flee and hid in a neighbor’s residence.
Mr. Mansour was born in Iraq and immigrated to Israel as a teen. He managed the kibbutz rooster coops and was a lover of ice cream. Virtually a yr in the past final March, his household marked what would have been his 86th birthday with a request that the general public eat ice cream on his behalf and publish an image on social media with the caption “Carry.Shlomo.Dwelling.”
Itzhak Elgarat
Mr. Elgarat was 68 when he was captured throughout the assault. Fighters took him from his protected room in Kibbutz Nir Ouncesand shot him within the hand, in accordance with his brother, Danny Elgarat, who spoke to him on the morning of the attack. Mr. Elgarat was a twin Israeli and Danish citizen.
In July, Danny advised Israeli information media that the Israeli navy had advised him that Itzhak was in all probability not alive, though there was some proof that he had survived the assault and that his hand had been handled. Israeli officers didn’t verify the demise on the time.
In October final yr, Danny went on a starvation strike and protested every day close to the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, to press for a hostage deal. In January, Danny stated in an address to Israeli lawmakers that his brother was possible useless and urged them to prioritize the discharge of residing captives. “Depart the our bodies there,” he stated. “Carry again residing individuals.”
There are roughly 25 residing hostages nonetheless being held in Gaza, together with the our bodies of greater than 30 others, in accordance with the Israeli authorities.
Tsachi Idan
Mr. Idan was 49 when he was taken captive from his residence in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. His oldest daughter, Maayan, 18, was shot and killed throughout the assault; she died in entrance of two of her siblings and her dad and mom. A part of the household’s expertise was streamed live by the militants after they bought the password for the cellphone of his spouse, Gali Idan. (One other daughter was not at residence on the time.)
Ms. Idan, in interviews after the ordeal, spoke about what the household had endured — she stated that her husband had been taken away together with his arms tied behind his again as their children begged the militants, who stated that he would return, to not kill him. She and two of their kids managed to flee.
Mr. Idan’s mom, Devorah Idan, spoke at a rally for the hostages in Tel Aviv in August, describing the hostages’ continued captivity as “a nightmare.”
His household stated in a press release on Wednesday, after Hamas recognized the our bodies it might be handing over, that they had been “nonetheless ready for the much-needed certainty” that affirmation of his demise would carry. They stated that solely after his arrival in Israel and “in spite of everything mandatory examinations are performed by the approved state authorities” would they really feel assured that the stays had been Mr. Idan’s.
Ohad Yahalomi
Mr. Yahalomi was shot throughout the 2023 assault in a gunfight with militants at his residence in Kibbutz Nir Ouncesand was taken hostage. He was 49 on the time.
His spouse and three kids had been taken from their residence — the couple’s 12-year-old son was separated from his mom and siblings and was taken hostage, whereas the opposite three members of the family managed to flee. The boy, Eitan, was launched in November 2023, throughout an earlier cease-fire deal.
Mr. Yahalomi’s household stated that he had labored for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and was enthusiastic about wildlife. Efrat Yahalomi, his sister, who has traveled world wide to advocate a hostage deal, has stated it’s “extremely painful” to know that captives are nonetheless languishing in captivity.
“Virtually 9 months have handed, and I’m nonetheless standing right here with a heavy coronary heart, whilst you, Ohad, are nonetheless not right here,” she said in a press release in late June.
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