Israel received the bodies of four hostages  – Tzachi Idan, Ohad Yahalomi, Itzik Elgarat, and Shlomo Mantzur – from Hamas captivity in Gaza late Wednesday night. The remains were handed over to the Red Cross at the Kerem Shalom crossing, marking the conclusion of the first phase of the hostage releases.

Unlike previous releases, which Hamas orchestrated as propaganda spectacles, the latest handover took place without public fanfare. Israel had previously halted prisoner releases in response to Hamas’s failure to return the correct remains during an earlier exchange and its continued use of hostage repatriations for theatrical propaganda displays.

As the bodies were transported to Israel for official identification, 602 Palestinian prisoners were simultaneously freed from Israeli detention facilities, with some returning to the West Bank and Gaza. Among them were 445 men, 24 women and minors, and 151 convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis.

The first batch of released prisoners arrived in Ramallah, greeted by cheering crowds. Before their departure, a projection reading “Our eyes are watching you” was beamed onto a building near Ofer Prison, serving as a warning to the freed detainees.

The exchange followed tense negotiations between Israel and Hamas, after previous delays resulted from Hamas’s failure to correctly return the body of Shiri Bibas and its insistence on public ceremonies for prisoner releases. These violations of the ceasefire agreement led Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office to temporarily pause the deal.

“Hamas’s repeated violations—including ceremonies that disgrace our hostages’ dignity and the cynical use of hostages for propaganda purposes—forced us to delay the release of terrorists until we ensured the next handover proceeded without degrading spectacles,” the PMO said in a statement.

Hamas has previously staged public celebrations for hostage releases, parading banners, forcing hostages to kiss captors on the forehead, and using the events to rally Gazan crowds. The absence of such ceremonies this time suggests a shift, as pressure mounts on Hamas to abide by ceasefire agreements and cease its exploitation of hostages for propaganda purposes.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)