Shortly after the handover of Hamas, the bodies of 4 Israeli prisoners to the Israeli side, with the release of hundreds of Palestinians in return, as part of an exchange process that is the latter in the framework of a fragile truce in Gaza, the movement confirmed its commitment to the ceasefire agreement, and its willingness to start the second stage talks.
And announced in a statement early Thursday morning that the only way to liberate the remaining Israeli detainees in the Strip is to adhere to the ceasefire agreement.
She also added that she is ready to start the second stage talks.
Prisoner buses in Gaza
While the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed that “Israel received coffins carrying the remains of 4 Israelis,” and they are “Tzahi Aidan, Aitsik Elgarat, Wawad Yahalome and Shlomo Montessor, all of whom were prisoners of the October 7, 2023 attack, who were residents of Kibbuts near Gaza.
He also indicated in a statement that the bodies are currently undergoing the initial examination to identify them and then send an official notice to their families as soon as the operation is completed.
This came, in conjunction with the arrival of 12 Palestinian prisoners buses to the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, and the delivery of 97 Palestinian prisoners to Egypt, where they will remain there until they are transferred to another country.
Some of the clips showed the arrival of Palestinian prisoners in ambulances to the hospital with difficult health conditions.
About 600 Palestinians
While a source in the Hamas movement explained that the Palestinians scheduled for their release are 445 men and 24 women and the palace were arrested in Gaza, in addition to 151 others who were sentenced to life imprisonment for accusing them of attacks that killed Israelis.
Meanwhile, live footage showed earlier a bus carrying some of the released Palestinians leaving the Israeli prison in the occupied West Bank and reaching the Palestinian city of Ramallah.
While the group got out of the bus amid chants of hundreds of gathering around it, who raised some of them on the shoulders.
In the context, Bilal Yassin, 42, told Reuters that he had spent 20 years in Israeli prisons, adding that he had been suppressed and bad conditions throughout this period.
The exchange agreement had been suspended last Saturday, after Hamas handed the remains of an unidentified woman instead of Sherry Pipas before her body was already delivered the next day.
It is noteworthy that the first phase of the ceasefire agreement consisting of 3 stages, which ends next Saturday, stipulated the exchange of 33 Israelis in total compared to about two thousand Palestinian prisoners, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from some sites in Gaza, in addition to the flow of aid.
But with the end of that 42 -day stage, it is still unclear whether the extension that may lead to the release of more remaining Israeli prisoners, 59, will be, or whether negotiations can be started on a second stage of agreement.
