Hamas set to hand over bodies of four hostages killed in Gaza

Iair Horn, who was released last weekend, warns the remaining captives are running out of time as Hamas says it will hand over four dead hostages on Thursday.

People walk past a billboard bearing the portraits of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP.

One of the Israeli hostages freed last weekend has urged Israel to ensure the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza, warning they “don’t have any more time.”

Iair Horn, whose brother Eitan remains in captivity, told a rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square: “We’re out of time.”

“I was there. I was in Hamas’s tunnels. My body endured this captivity, and I’m telling you the hostages do not have any more time,” Mr Horn said in a pre-recorded video screened to a rally commemorating the 500th day of the war with Hamas.

“We’re out of time, we must return them now,” said a tearful Mr Horn, after the relatives of other freed captives descirbed their maltreatment at the hands of the captors. Most were starved and held in the dark, while many of the men were beaten and some were tortured.

Mr Horn was freed on Saturday with Sagui Dekel-Chen and Sasha Troufanov as part of the first phase of the ceasefire in which Hamas has agreed to hand over 33 hostages, of whom eight are dead.

The terror group is expected on Thursday (local time) to hand over the bodies of four captives who died in Gaza, ahead of the release of three living captives on Saturday.

Another four bodies will be handed over Thursday next week, Israeli media reports. The names of the first four hostages will be announced on Thursday morning, Israel’s state broadcaster KAN reports.

Since the ceasefire took effect on January 19, a total of 19 Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Out of 251 people seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

The families of the hostages still in Gaza on Monday marked 500 days of their captivity, holding pictures of their loved ones and banners reading “Home Now”.

On Tuesday (AEDT) Israel expressed commitment to a US proposal to take over Gaza and displace its Palestinian residents, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks in Saudi Arabia where he was expected to push the plan opposed by Arab states.

Arriving in the kingdom after talks in Israel, Mr Rubio met de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

A Saudi source had earlier told AFP that Riyadh would host a regional summit later this week “to discuss Arab alternatives” to President Trump’s widely criticised plan for Gaza.

Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait will be represented at the Friday summit, the source said.

In a statement on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “committed to US President Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza”, also promising that after the war, “there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority” ruling the territory.

The United States, Israel’s top ally and weapons supplier, says it is open to alternative proposals from Arab governments, but Mr Rubio has said for now, “the only plan is the Trump plan”.

The proposal lacked detail but Mr Trump said Palestinians had “lived a miserable existence” in Gaza and suggested the coastal territory could become the “Riviera of the Middle East” following redevelopment after more than 15 months of war.

The United States has also been pushing for a historic deal in which Saudi Arabia would recognise Israel. In return, Riyadh demands the establishment of a Palestinian state – long opposed by Israeli leaders and potentially in contradiction to Mr Trump’s Gaza plan.

On Monday Egypt hosted the latest meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, which initially gathered in Saudi Arabia last year.

Egypt’s foreign ministry stressed Cairo’s “full commitment to implementing the two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and “the necessity of establishing an independent Palestinian state”.

Mr Trump’s proposal has strained a truce between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas, the first phase of which would expire in early March.

Negotiations on a second phase, aimed at securing a more lasting end to the war, could begin this week in Doha, a Hamas official and another source familiar with the talks have said.

Netanyahu’s office said negotiators dispatched to Cairo would “receive further directives for negotiations” on the second phase after the cabinet meeting.

Earlier, Mr Netanyahu said he spoke with Mr Rubio about “Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future” – which experts have warned would violate international law – and about ways to “ensure that vision becomes a reality”.

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum encouraged people to observe a 500-minute fast on Monday in solidarity with the hostages.

Mr Rubio called in a statement for the immediate release of all remaining captives. In Gaza, over the 500 days since Hamas’s attack sparked the war, Mohammed Abu Mursa said he has known only “humiliation, suffering and bloodshed”.

Abu Mursa and his family have been displaced more than a dozen times trying to survive.

“I just hope the ceasefire holds and that the exchange of prisoners continues,” he said.

AFP