Shocking images released from the south Gaza city Khan Younis show Hamas soldiers returning the bodies of four Israeli hostages – including two young children – in black coffins
Sickening photos have shown armed Hamas militants standing over the coffins of the latest hostages to be released, including those of two young children.
It comes as Hamas has released the bodies of four more hostages – a mum and her two kids and an elderly man. The chilling photos showed the exchange at Khan Younis in Gaza where militants carried black coffins reported to contain the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted.
The youngest, Kfir, was just nine months old when he was abducted in the October 7 attacks, having never spent a birthday in freedom, while Ariel was four. Hamas said all four were killed as a result of Israeli strikes.
Militants displayed four black coffins on a stage in the Gaza strip, surrounded by banners, including one depicting Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire. The coffins were then carried over to Red Cross vehicles where staff in red vests covered the caskets in white sheets before placing them inside a van.
Their coffins were presented amidst an exchange of prisoners between the two warring states. The bodies will now be transported back to Israel for identification. Israeli military has confirmed it has received the coffins.
Thousands of people, including masked and armed fighters from Hamas and other factions, gathered at the handover site on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city. The handover was not broadcast by Israeli channels, instead Hostage Square in Tel Aviv showed a compilation of photos on the large screen of Mr Lifshitz and the Bibas family, including a heartwrenching photo of baby Kfir chuckling and the family dressed up in Batman costumes. Dozens of residents of Kubbitz Nir Oz, where the four were kidnapped, gathered to wave Israeli flags outside of their temporary home an hour north of the kibbutz.
So far 24 hostages have been released alive by Hamas, while Israel says it is releasing 369 Palestinian prisoners in return. A total of 251 people were abducted in the October 7 attacks, including 30 children. Most of the women and children taken have now been released, AP reports, either through ceasefire deals or other agreements. At the end of last month, Hamas released five Thai hostages allowed to return home after being abducted while working on a farm in Israel.
The returns come under a tenuous ceasefire that paused over 15 months of war. It’s believed that the grim handover could provide impetus for negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire that have hardly begun. The first phase is se to end at the beginning of March.
Since the group’s ground offensive back in 2023, Israel has retaliated with strikes across Gaza which have so far killed 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry figures quoted by the UN.