Middle East latest: Hamas hands over 4 dead hostages, as Palestinians leave Israeli prison

Israel had delayed the release of over 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it called the cruel treatment of hostages during their handover by Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had said Wednesday that the release of the bodies would be carried out without a ceremony, as opposed to past Hamas releases with stage-managed events in front of crowds. Israel, along with the Red Cross and U.N. officials, have called the ceremonies humiliating for the hostages.

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Here's the latest:

Israeli prime minister's office says they have received bodies of 4 dead hostages

Israel's prime minister's office said authorities have received the bodies of four hostages early Thursday, days before the first phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will end.

An Israeli security official confirmed that Hamas handed the bodies to the Red Cross. Israel said the caskets were delivered with the help of Egyptian mediators through an Israeli crossing and an identification process has begun.

At around the same time, a Red Cross convoy carrying dozens of released Palestinian prisoners left Israel’s Ofer prison. Crowds of cheering families, friends and supporters of Palestinian prisoners were gathered in Beitunia jostling for a glimpse of the bus that was on its way.

Red Cross convo

y carrying dozens of released Palestinian prisoners leaves Israel’s Ofer prison

A Red Cross convoy carrying dozens of released Palestinian prisoners left Israel’s Ofer prison early Thursday. Crowds of cheering families, friends and supporters of Palestinian prisoners were gathered in Beitunia jostling for a glimpse of the bus that was on its way.

Hundreds of detainees arrested from Gaza, held by Israel on suspicion of militancy after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack without charge for months, were headed back to the Gaza Strip. They include 445 men, 21 teenagers and one woman who were all arrested after the Hamas attack, according to lists shared by Palestinian officials that did not specify their ages.

Only around 50 Palestinians were being released into the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem in this round. Dozens sentenced to life over deadly attacks against Israelis will be exiled out of the Palestinian territories, taken to Egypt at least temporarily until other countries accept them.

Israeli official says Hamas has handed to Red Cross the bodies of 4 Israelis held hostage in Gaza

An Israeli security official said early Thursday that Hamas has handed to the Red Cross the bodies of 4 Israelis who were held hostage in Gaza

The official was speaking on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.

At around the same time, a Red Cross convoy carrying dozens of released Palestinian prisoners left Israel’s Ofer prison.

Family of an Israeli hostage says his body will be released

The family of a hostage held in Gaza says they have received notification he is dead and is one of the four hostage bodies to be returned by Hamas late Wednesday.

Relatives of Tsachi Idan said that he was alive when taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, according to a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the group representing families of the hostages.

“Since Tsachi was kidnapped, we received several signs of life, and in the previous deal last November, Tsachi was alive and expected to be released,” wrote the family. “We are still waiting for the much-needed certainty, which we can only receive after his arrival in Israel and after all necessary examinations are conducted by the authorized state authorities.”

Idan was taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. His eldest daughter, Maayan, was also killed as militants shot through the door of the saferoom. Hamas militants broadcast themselves on Facebook live holding the Idan family hostage in their home, as his two younger children pleaded with the militants to let them go.

The family did not specify who informed them Idan was dead, although notifications typically come from the Israeli military.

Israel starts getting ready to release Palestinian prisoners

Preparations are underway to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the bodies of four Israeli hostages.

Israel's prison service said officials were planning to bring detainees to two central prisons, where they would wait until the hostages were released. Then, upon notification from Israeli authorities, officials from the Red Cross will drive Palestinians to the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli hostage bodies and Palestinian prisoners will be released late Wednesday, the two sides say

Israel’s prime minister confirmed that Hamas would release four hostages’ bodies late Wednesday and the Prisoners Club, a group that represents current and former Palestinian prisoners, said Israel was expected to release hundreds of prisoners the same night in exchange.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the four bodies would be released without a ceremony, in a quieter fashion than than previous Hamas releases where captives and bodies were handed over to the Red Cross in highly stage-managed ceremonies.

The Prisoners’ Club said Israel would release the Palestinian detainees at 11 p.m. local time. Israel is expected to release over 600 prisoners to Gaza and the West Bank after delaying their release last weekend to protest Hamas’ public release ceremonies, which Israel said were cruel to the hostages.

Hamas’ military arm said it will hand over the bodies of four hostages to Israel on Wednesday night, according to Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Israeli strike in Lebanon near Syrian border kills at least 1 person

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency did not identify the person killed in Wednesday’s Israeli drone strike in the northeast, which wounded at least one other person.

The Israeli military said it killed a member of the Hezbollah militant group's Unit 4400, alleging that the person killed was involved in weapons transfers during Hezbollah’s 14-month war with Israel. The Israeli military said Hezbollah continues to smuggle weapons, and the strike took place in the Qasr area in Lebanon, which is near the border with Syria.

Egypt rejects Israeli politician's idea for it to rule Gaza

Egypt on Wednesday rejected a proposal floated by Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid suggesting the Gaza Strip could be ruled and rebuilt by Egypt in exchange for debt relief.

In response to an Associated Press inquiry, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tamim Khalaf said any proposals that didn’t call for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state “are rejected and unaccepted.”

Egypt, which has been developing its own plan for Gaza’s reconstruction, has sought to link any postwar plan for Gaza to progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. Lapid made his proposal Tuesday while speaking at a conservative think tank in Washington.

A freed Israeli hostage pleads for the return of his younger brother

Released hostage Iair Horn said a final goodbye to his neighbors the Bibas family on Wednesday and pleaded for the return of his younger brother, Eitan, who is still being held in Gaza. Horn was released from captivity two weeks ago.

“After 498 days, I was released from Hamas captivity,” Horn said. Looking straight at the dozens of supporters and journalists gathered in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, he repeated: “498 days.”

He noted that 63 other hostages, including his brother, are “fighting just to breathe,” without the freedom to experience the sun. He said that this public comment was the longest he had spent in the sun since Oct. 7, 2023. He urged Israeli leaders to sign an agreement for the second stage of the ceasefire, when the remaining 63 hostages, including the body of an Israeli soldier killed and kidnapped in 2014, are expected to return.

Horn lit a candle and laid a red flower next to a memorial for the Bibas family, along with almost 40 ambassadors to Israel.

“We don’t have time, and the hostages don’t have time,” Horn said. “Eitan is my little brother, but he’s huge, please help me bring him home, because if we don’t bring them back, none of us can truly return.”

Israeli rights group says Palestinian doctors from Gaza faced systematic abuse in detention

An Israeli human rights group says Palestinian doctors from Gaza have faced systematic abuse in Israeli military detention, including starvation and medical neglect “amounting to torture.”

The report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, released Wednesday, is based on interviews with 24 doctors who spent time in Israel's network of military detention facilities.

Doctors said they were treated especially harshly because they were physicians. Israel raided hospitals in Gaza on several occasions, saying Hamas was using them for military purposes but rarely providing evidence.

Many of the medical workers said they were beaten, including an ambulance driver who said soldiers knocked out a dental filling. Others recounted being strung up by their wrists and having cigarettes extinguished on them.

Israel’s military and prison service did not respond to a request for comment. In response to previous inquiries, Israeli authorities have said they act according to the law and investigate and punish any wrongdoing by individuals.

Turkish foreign minister accuses Israel of expansionism in Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accused Israel of “regional aggression” and “expansionism” following recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his country would not allow Syria’s new army to enter areas south of Damascus.

Fidan on Wednesday also welcomed a national dialogue conference held by Syria’s new rulers who have promised an inclusive political transition.

“The biggest obstacle to peace and stability in our region is Israel’s regional aggression,” Fidan said. “Netanyahu’s recent statements regarding Syria clearly show that Israel is not in favor of peace. Israel must end its regional expansionism under the guise of establishing security.”

Fidan said that Turkey expects the transition process in Syria to prevent separatist movements — a reference to Syrian Kurdish militias, which Ankara views as affiliates of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, and seeks to have disbanded.

Israeli authorities charge released Palestinian prisoner with traffic violation

Israeli authorities have filed charges against a Palestinian for riding in a car without a seatbelt while celebrating his release from prison under the ceasefire with Hamas.

Israeli police said Wednesday that Ashraf Zaghir, 46, and two of his family members “stood inside a moving vehicle with their upper bodies outside the car, without seat belts, recklessly endangering themselves and others” in violation of traffic laws.

Israel has tried to stamp out public expressions of joy over the release of prisoners. Hundreds of Palestinians have been released in recent weeks in exchange for the release of hostages abducted by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

Zaghir was convicted of transporting a suicide bomber in a 2002 attack that killed six people and wounded dozens. It was not clear if Israel planned to arrest him again over the traffic violations.

Medics in Gaza report 7th infant death from hypothermia

Palestinian medics say an infant has died from hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, the seventh such death in the last two weeks.

Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said that Seela Abdel Qader, who was less than 2 months old, died Wednesday due to the latest “severe cold wave” that has hit the Palestinian enclave.

Zaher al-Wahedi, head of the ministry’s records department, said the child died in Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are living in crowded tent camps or buildings damaged in the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas, which has been paused by a fragile ceasefire.

The head of the Arab League condemns Israeli airstrikes in Syria

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions in Syria as a “a reckless provocation and an escalation that seizes the opportunity of political transition in Syria to establish an illegal and illegitimate reality.”

He called for the international community “to take clear positions to condemn this unjustified aggression that aims to ignite tension in the region and put obstacles in the way of political transition in Syria.”

Since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israel has regularly launched airstrike on military sites in Syria and Israeli forces moved into territory in southern Syria adjacent to the Israel-annexed Golan Heights and have made clear they plan to stay indefinitely, citing security concerns.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel won’t allow Syria’s new army to “enter the area south of Damascus.”

There has been no official response from the Syrian interim government, led by members of the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, to Netanyahu’s comments, but Syrian officials have called for Israel to withdraw from the territory it has seized since Assad’s fall.

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