Middle East latest: Israel receives remains said to include a mother and her 2 young children

Hamas on Thursday released the bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who have long been feared dead and had come to embody the nation’s agony following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

The remains were said to be of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted. Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day. Hamas has said all four were killed along with their guards in Israeli airstrikes.

“The heart of an entire nation breaks,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday in anticipation of the bodies being returned to Israel.

Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire, and the first ends in early March. Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.

Since the war in Gaza began, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.

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Here's the latest:

Hamas begins handover of remains of 4 Israeli hostages

Hamas militants displayed four black coffins on a stage surrounded by militant banners ahead of the handover Thursday of hostages' remains.

Red Cross vehicles were present at the scene to accept the bodies and return them to Israel.

The handover is part of a ceasefire that paused Israel’s 15-month military offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

▶ Read more about the ceasefire in Gaza.