Hamas, a militant group, said Thursday that negotiations began in the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, after hundreds of Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons overnight in exchange for the bodies of four Israeli hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement earlier Thursday that he had ordered a delegation of negotiators to send on the same day to Cairo, Egypt, to continue negotiations.
It was the final exchange of the first phase of a six-week ceasefire that took effect on January 19 in the Gaza war.
Negotiations have not yet begun in phase two, aiming to lead to a permanent ending of the war that began in October 2023, when Hamas-led combatants attacked Israeli towns and Israel responded to a retaliatory attack that destroyed the enclave.
Hamas said Thursday that the only way for the remaining hostages in Gaza to be released is through a commitment to a ceasefire.
“We renewed our full commitment to the ceasefire agreement and confirmed that we are ready to negotiate on the second phase of the agreement,” the organization said in a statement.
Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen said returning the remaining 59 hostages was a top priority, but there would be no agreement in the second phase of the ceasefire if Hamas was intact in the Gaza Strip.
“Our requests are clear,” safety cabinet member Cohen told public broadcaster Kan.
Cohen said Israel is now more important than its position to negotiate on the eve of the ceasefire, as it has been fully supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, who began launching heavy bombs this month.
Egyptian mediators secured the bodies of the last four hostages in the first phase of the deal on Wednesday in exchange for 620 Palestinians being detained by Israeli forces in Gaza or sentenced to jail in Israel.
Israel earlier refused to release prisoners after Hamas awarded six hostages at a staged ceremony.
Hamas has been showing the hostages and coffins to the Gaza crowd before it, and then handing them over to the Gaza stage to criticize including the United Nations.
The final handover does not include such a ceremony.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in the early hours of Thursday that Israel had received a coffin carrying four hostages.
President Isaac Herzog confirmed the bodies in an article on X as Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur, who were kidnapped in an October 7, 2023 attack on Kibbbutz Homes near Gaza.
He wrote: “In this difficult time, they will comfort them to rest in the graves of Israel.”
According to Israel, Hamas captured 251 people and killed about 1,200 people in an October attack on Israel’s southern community.
Palestinian authorities say at least 48,000 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. The war has been wasted on the crowded coastal enclaves and has displaced most of the population many times.
Palestinians were released overnight, including 445 men, 24 women and minors detained in Gaza, and 151 prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment for fatal attacks on Israelis, according to Hamas sources.
A bus transported the detainees from Ofer Prison in the West Bank of Israel to Ramallah, where cheering crowds gathered to greet them.
Bilal Yassin, 42, told Reuters that he had been detained in Israel for 20 years.
“Our sacrifice and imprisonment are not in vain,” Yasin said. “We are [Palestinian] Resist. ”
Nearly 100 Palestinian prisoners were handed over to Egypt until another country accepted them, according to Hamas sources and Egyptian media.
