TEL AVIV, Israel — Hamas says it has agreed to Israel's request to speed up the release of Israeli hostages, including two men Hamas has held for around a decade.
Hamas said it would give Israel the bodies of four Israeli hostages this Thursday, including the bodies of members of a young family whose case is known prominently throughout Israel. The group also said this Saturday it will release all six living hostages it had committed to freeing by the end of February, including the longest-held hostages.
Hamas is committing to releasing four more bodies of hostages next week.
In exchange, Israel is acceding to Hamas' request to allow mobile homes into Gaza for those whose homes were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the war that began in October 2023, as well as heavy machinery to unearth the bodies of Palestinians buried under rubble, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the arrangement.
Israel says these agreements were reached through mediators during negotiations in Cairo. As part of the deal, Israel will continue to release Palestinian detainees arrested in Gaza during the war and longtime prisoners convicted for deadly attacks against Israelis.
Hamas says it is ready to "engage immediately" in negotiations to extend the ceasefire and release all remaining Israeli hostages in one batch and not in stages, in exchange for Israel freeing more Palestinian prisoners.
"These steps reflect the seriousness of [Hamas] in implementing the terms of the agreement as stated, and in response to the efforts of the mediators," Hamas said in a statement.
The Israelis who are slated for release
Hamas says the bodies of Bibas family members will be among the group of four bodies it will release to Israel Thursday.
Shiri Bibas, 33, was taken hostage to Gaza with her husband Yarden in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, along with their sons Ariel and Kfir, who were ages 4 and nine months at the time. A month later, Hamas said the mother and children had been killed in an Israeli strike. Israel said their deaths were not confirmed. Yarden Bibas was released alive this month.
Among the six living hostages Hamas says it will release Saturday are those held longest, two men captured around a decade before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. They are Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli man who crossed into Gaza and was seized in 2014, and Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel who was taken hostage after he crossed into Gaza in 2015.
The other four people to be released from captivity on Saturday are Eliya Cohen, 27, Tal Shoham, 40, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkrat, 23. Their names were provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and were also included on a list that Hamas provided of those to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire.
The future of the ceasefire remains unclear
When the first phase of the ceasefire ends on March 2, there will still be 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, nearly half of them confirmed dead.
Hamas and Israel are meant to negotiate the next phase of a ceasefire deal, releasing more hostages and prisoners in March, but the future of the deal is unclear.
Hamas says it is eager to begin negotiations on the next phase, but far-right members of Israel's governing coalition oppose further hostage-prisoner swaps and call for Israel to renew fighting in Gaza against Hamas.
The latest Israel-Hamas conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants from Hamas and other groups broke through the border with Israel and killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli authorities. In the ensuing 15 months of war, more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza were killed in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza health authorities.
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