Jerusalem, Feb 18 (EFE).- In an acceleration of the release timetable, Hamas said Tuesday that it would release six Gaza hostages and hand over the bodies of four others this week, including the remains of a mother and two young children whose deaths had not previously been confirmed.
The head of the Hamas negotiating delegation, Khalil al-Hayya, announced in a video message on Tuesday that the group would release six live hostages on Saturday, instead of three as originally agreed.
The Islamist group will also hand over the bodies of four abductees on Thursday, including 32-year-old Shiri Silberman Bibas, an Israeli of Argentine and Peruvian descent, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were nine months and four years old when Hamas abducted them in October.
The identity of the fourth hostage has not yet been released.
The Islamist group had already claimed in November 2023, shortly after the first ceasefire of the war, that the three had been killed in an Israeli attack on the enclave, but Israel never confirmed their deaths.
Yarden Bibas, Silberman’s husband and the father of the children, was released alive from Gaza on Feb. 1 after 484 days in captivity.
“In the last few hours, we have been in turmoil after the Hamas spokesman announced the return of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir this Thursday as part of the release phase of the hostages’ bodies,” the family’s relatives said in a message published by the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons.
The message said that the relatives were aware of the announcement but had not yet received official confirmation of Shiri and the children’s deaths. “Until we receive final confirmation, our journey is not over,” it added.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the release of six hostages on Saturday. In return, all the remaining Palestinians due to be released from Israeli prisons in the first phase will be freed on Saturday.
In statements and social media postings picked up by Israeli media, the families of Avera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkrat, Omer Shem Tov, and Eliya Cohen said Israeli authorities expected their loved ones to be released alive on Saturday.
Mengistu and al-Sayed have been held hostage in Gaza for a decade after voluntarily entering the enclave in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
Al-Sayed’s relatives said in a statement that the news of their return fills them with joy, but that this joy “will not be complete until all hostages return home.”
“The deal cannot end here, and no other hostage should face a decade in captivity,” the family of the hostage of Bedouin origin said.
The release of the six hostages alive represents a slight acceleration in the timetable originally agreed upon, as they were to be released in two groups of three, with the second group to be released on Mar. 1, when the second phase is scheduled to begin. EFE
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