As part of the current ceasefire agreement with Israel, Hamas has confirmed that six hostages kept alive in the Gaza Strip will be handed over on Saturday.
A top Hamas official says the militant group will release six living Israeli hostages on Saturday, a surprise acceleration in releases that appears to be in exchange for Israel allowing mobile homes and construction equipment into the devastated Gaza Strip.
The six are the last living hostages scheduled to be released during the first phase of the truce.
The warring parties have yet to negotiate the second, more challenging phase, in which Hamas would free hundreds more hostages in exchange for a long-term peace and an Israeli departure.
Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, in pre-recorded remarks released Tuesday, said the “Bibas family” would be included in the handover of four bodies, which is expected to include Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who for many Israelis embody the captives’ plight.
Israel has said it was gravely concerned about the Bibas family, while Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. Yarden Bibas, the husband and father, was kidnapped separately and released this month.
Kfir, who was 9 months old at the time, was the youngest hostage taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. A video of the abduction showed Shiri swaddling her redheaded boys in a blanket and being whisked away by armed men.
The six living hostages slated for release are Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed, and Avera Mengistu, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Tuesday.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to allow long-requested mobile homes and construction equipment into Gaza as part of efforts to accelerate the hostages’ release.
Hamas last week threatened to hold up releases, citing the refusal to allow in mobile homes and heavy equipment among other alleged violations of the truce.
Israel began allowing entry of rubble-removing equipment Tuesday, according to an Associated Press journalist in southern Gaza and Egypt’s state-run media.
Israel is expected to continue releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including many serving life sentences for deadly attacks, in exchange for the hostages.
Others were detained without charge. During the first phase, Israel is also due to release all women and children seized from Gaza since the war began.
The ceasefire that began in mid-January has paused the deadliest fighting ever between Israel and Hamas, surged aid into devastated Gaza and allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to their homes as Israeli forces withdrew from much of the territory.
Israelis and Palestinians marked 500 days of war on Monday.
