Sawt Falasteen - Israel frees hundreds of Palestinian prisoners after body handover

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had received the coffins of "four fallen hostages", and a process to formally identify them had started. A kibbutz later confirmed two of them were members of its community.

In Gaza and the occupied West Bank, AFP journalists saw hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel arrive on buses accompanied by Red Cross vehicles.

More than 600 had been due to be released in the latest exchange, and Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News said 97 of them arrived on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.

They were supposed to have been freed at the weekend, but Israel stopped the process following outrage over elaborate ceremonies Hamas had been holding to hand over hostages seized in its unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.

The row had threatened the first phase of a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal that went into effect on January 19 and ends on Saturday.

Hamas said on Thursday that Israel now had no choice but to start negotiations on a second phase.

"We have cut off the path before the enemy's false justifications, and it has no choice but to start negotiations for the second phase," the group said on Telegram.

Several of the Palestinians freed to Ramallah were hoisted in the air on arrival, some of them conducting interviews from the shoulders of friends or relatives.

A group of women broke into tears as they gathered around one released prisoner, and a child held aloft made peace signs with both hands.

Earlier, Hamas said the return of the four Israeli bodies would take place in private "to prevent the occupation from finding any pretext for delay or obstruction".

Hours after the coffins were handed over, the kibbutz Nir Oz said two members of its community -- Itzik Elgarat and Ohad Yahalomi -- were among the four bodies returned.

Israeli media identified the other two as Tsachi Idan and Shlomo Mansour.

- 'Negotiations will begin' -

The ceasefire has largely halted the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, and seen 25 hostages released alive in exchange for more than 1,100 prisoners.

There have been sporadic incidents of violence, however.

The Israeli military said it carried out air strikes on several launch sites inside Gaza after a projectile was fired from there on Wednesday, though the munition fell short inside the Palestinian territory.

In Washington, US President Donald Trump's top envoy to the Middle East said Israeli representatives were en route to talks on the next phase of the ceasefire.

"We're making a lot of progress. Israel is sending a team right now as we speak," Steve Witkoff told an event for the American Jewish Committee.

"It's either going to be in Doha or in Cairo, where negotiations will begin again with the Egyptians and the Qataris."

- Minute of silence -

On Wednesday, thousands gathered in Israel for the funeral of Shiri Bibas and her sons, who were killed in captivity in Gaza and had become symbols of the country's hostage ordeal.

The Israeli parliament held a minute of silence to mourn their deaths, as well as those of other victims of Hamas's October 7 attack.

"Yesterday, the funeral of Oded Lifshitz took place; today, the funeral of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas is taking place. We remember all the victims of October 7. We remember, and we will not forget," said speaker Amir Ohana.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the attack, the deadliest in the country's history and has made bringing back all the hostages taken that day a central war aim.

The attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,215 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

At the Bibas family funeral on Wednesday, father Yarden Bibas, who was abducted separately on October 7 and released alive in a previous exchange, apologised to his late wife and sons.

"Shiri, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you all," he said in his eulogy, his voice cracking.

E.AbuRizq--SF-PST