Hamas militants on Thursday displayed four black coffins on a stage in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis ahead of the handover of the bodies of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross. Each casket was shown with a photo of a body, including Shiri Bibas, her two young sons Kfir and Ariel, and a fourth captive, Oded Lifshitz. Red Cross loaded coffins in vehicles after Hamas handed over dead hostages, an AFP journalist reported.

The remains released from the Gaza Strip are of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir. Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day. Hamas has said all three were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. Thousands of people, including large numbers of masked and armed fighters from Hamas and other factions, gathered at the handover site on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Israeli channels did not broadcast the handover, and there were no plans to show it live in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, where Israelis have gathered to watch the release of living hostages. Hamas is set to free six living hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and says it will release four more bodies next week, completing the ceasefire’s first phase. That will leave the militants with some 60 hostages, all men, around half of whom are believed to be dead.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)