Hamas Returns Four More Bodies of Murdered Hostages

February 27, 2025

by: JNS

Thursday, 27 February 2025 | Kibbutz Nir Oz announced on Thursday morning that Israeli hostages Itzik Elgarat and Ohad Yahalomi, whose bodies were among four returned to Israel overnight Wednesday, were murdered in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum and Tsahi Idan’s family shortly thereafter confirmed the identification of Shlomo Mantzur’s and Tzahi Idan’s remains, respectively.

The terrorist organization handed over to the Red Cross what it claimed were the bodies of the four Israelis at around midnight in Gaza.

The handover did not include a stage ceremony in front of a crowd of Gazans. These ceremonies during previous releases drew criticism from the United Nations and other international actors.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the handover.

“The coffins were, with Egyptian mediation, handed over to an IDF force at the Kerem Shalom Crossing. The initial identification process on Israeli territory has begun,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The identification process was carried out at the L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv’s Abu Kabir neighborhood.

The Israeli Health Ministry stated that a full forensic examination to determine the cause of death of the four will be conducted at a later time.

With the return of the four, Israel has now received all 33 hostages that were to be handed over in the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Twenty-five returned alive.

“Together with the entire nation, we share in the immense grief and sorrow of the bereaved families and the kibbutz [collective] communities of Nir Oz, Nahal Oz, and Kissufim,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote on X.

“The return of our brothers’ bodies from captivity underscores our moral obligation to do everything in our power to bring back all the hostages—the living to their loving families, and the fallen to be laid to rest. Until the last one is home! They are all humanitarian cases, and they must all be returned,” he continued.

“May their memory be a blessing.”

Following the identification of Franco-Israeli hostage Yahalomi’s body, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Hamas, tweeting that “the barbaric acts of Hamas must end.” He expressed sympathy for the families, writing, “I share the immense pain of his family and loved ones.” Macron also noted that France had lost 50 of its citizens during the terrorist group’s October 7, 2023 massacre.

In exchange for their return to Israel, Jerusalem is releasing some 600 Palestinian terrorists whose scheduled release on February 22 was postponed due to ceasefire violations by Hamas, including the inhumane treatment of the hostages, who were forced to endure humiliating ceremonies upon their release.

Palestinian medics cited by Reuters reported that Israel had returned the body of an unidentified Gazan woman—initially handed over by Hamas in place of slain hostage Shiri Bibas—to a hospital in the Gaza Strip, following the recovery of Bibas’s remains over the weekend.

A Hamas source told Reuters that the Palestinian detainees set for release include 445 men and 24 women and minors arrested in Gaza, along with 151 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.

The first phase of the ceasefire saw the exchange of the 33 Israeli hostages for some 2,000 Palestinian terrorists, along with the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from some areas in Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid to the Strip.

As the 42-day truce approaches its expiration on Saturday, it remains unclear whether it will be extended to facilitate the release of more of the 59 remaining hostages, or if talks for a second phase of the deal will commence. According to Israel’s assessment, 27 hostages are alive.

Posted on February 27, 2025

Source: (This article was originally published by the Jewish News Syndicate on February 27, 2025. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images/jns.org