On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance factions handed over to Israel the bodies of four Israeli detainees, including the bodies of the Bibas family and the body of prisoner Oded Lifshitz, in exchange for the release of about 50 Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian resistance elements were deployed in the town of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Yunis, during the handover of the bodies of the detainees.

A banner was erected on the delivery platform, with the words “The war criminal Netanyahu killed them with warplane missiles,” and another, “We would not forgive if we forgot, and the flood was our appointment,” in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.

This handover is the first to include dead hostages, and was carried out, as was the case with living hostages, by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The procedures for handing over the bodies of the Israeli prisoners came as the ceasefire agreement in Gaza entered its 33rd day, while the Palestinian resistance will release six living detainees on Saturday.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, said that it would hand over the remains of the Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz, and the spokesman for the Mujahideen Brigades, Abu Bilal, also announced that the bodies of the Bibas family would be handed over, as part of the first phase of the exchange deal agreement.

Commenting on the resistance handing over the bodies of four Israeli prisoners, Hamas stressed that prisoner exchange is the only way to return the Israeli detainees to their families alive, and that any attempt to retrieve them by military force or return to war will only result in more losses among the prisoners.

Hamas said it was prepared to release all hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip "all at once," not in successive batches, during the second phase of the truce agreement, which is supposed to begin on March 2.

This second phase of the ceasefire agreement is supposed to completely end the war in Gaza, but negotiations on it have not yet begun, as Hamas and Israel exchange accusations of violating the first phase.

The third and final phase of the agreement revolves around the reconstruction of the destroyed Gaza Strip.

On the Israeli side, the Israeli Hostage Families Forum announced that it had been informed of the death of four hostages while being held in Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "This will be a very difficult day for the State of Israel, a painful day, a day of mourning. We will bring home four of our beloved hostages who died."

In November 2023, Hamas announced the killing of Sheri Bibas and her two children in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. On February 1, Hamas released the children’s father, Yarden Bibas (35 years old).

Today, there are still 70 hostages being held in Gaza, including at least 35 who have been killed, according to the Israeli military.

Since the ceasefire reached through the mediation of three countries: Qatar, Egypt and the United States, 19 Israeli hostages have been released from Gaza in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli occupation prisons, at a rate of one exchange every week.