Hamas on Tuesday said that it will release the dead bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including the two youngest people held by the group, Kfir and Ariel Bibas.
The group will also release six living hostages on Saturday, instead of the three that had been expected, Khalil Al-Hayya, head of the group’s negotiating team, said in a statement.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed on Tuesday that an agreement had been reached during negotiations in Cairo for “four slain hostages” to be handed over on Thursday and “six living hostages” to be released on Saturday.
It added that “four additional slain hostages are expected to be handed over to Israel next week.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli Hostage Families Forum said that the families of all the hostages set for release, dead and alive, have been notified.
Israel is expected to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israelis, as in past weeks.
It is clearest indication that the Bibas children – who were just nine months and four years old, respectively, when they were kidnapped in October 2023 – are indeed dead.
Israel has not yet confirmed their deaths and has not yet commented on Hamas’ announcement.
Hamas claimed in November 2023 that Kfir and Ariel Bibas were killed along with their mother in an Israeli airstrike, and released a video of their father Yarden, who was also held hostage, in which he blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their deaths.
An Israeli military spokesperson at the time called the video “psychological terror,” but the military has told relatives that they may not be alive, according to a spokesperson for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Hamas released Yarden Bibas, alive, on February 1.
The Bibas family, and Kfir in particular, have become one of the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks.
Kfir’s picture has been featured on many of the posters calling for the release of the hostages that have been on display across Israel and the world for the past 15 months. In it, the red-haired baby boy is holding a pink elephant toy, looking directly into the camera with a toothless smile.
Hamas’ announcement came on the day Israel said it would begin talks on the second phase of the Gaza hostage-ceasefire agreement.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said negotiations could begin “this week” following discussions with “our American friends”.
He committed to aiming to reach an agreement by the 42nd day of the truce, as stipulated in the original deal, and said the possibility of a longer-term agreement was an “option”.