Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Hamas handed over coffins it said contain the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including those of the Bibas family who became symbols of the ordeal that has gripped Israel since the Gaza war began.

The transfer of the bodies is the first by Hamas since its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war, and is taking place under a fragile ceasefire that has seen living hostages exchanged for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

The ceremony to return the bodies of Shiri Bibas, her two young boys —- Kfir and Ariel -— and a fourth captive, Oded Lifshitz, 83 at the time of his capture, took place at a former cemetery in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

Ahead of the handover, Hamas displayed four black coffins on a stage erected on the sandy patch of ground. A banner behind them depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a blood-stained vampire. An armed militant stood nearby.

Each casket bore a small photo of each of the deceased. White mock-up missiles placed near the coffins bore the inscription: “They were killed by USA bombs.”

A militant, his face wrapped in a red and white keffiyeh scarf, sat on the stage to complete documents with a Red Cross official before the coffins were loaded into Red Cross vehicles, AFPTV images showed.

The Israeli military said later that “the hostages’ bodies were handed over” to it and the Shin Bet internal security agency in Gaza.

Hundreds of people gathered to witness the ceremony. A fence had been erected to keep onlookers away from the immediate area where the handover to the Red Cross was to occur.

Armed men in military fatigues and wearing Hamas headbands were ubiquitous, standing near the stage for the ceremony – carefully choreographed as for previous transfers of hostages during the truce.

Footage of the family’s abduction, filmed and broadcast by Hamas during their attack, showed the mother and her sons Ariel, then four, and Kfir, just nine months old, being seized from their home near the Gaza border.

Yarden Bibas, the boys’ father and Shiri’s husband, was abducted separately that day and released from the Gaza Strip in a previous hostage-prisoner exchange on February 1.

- ‘Day of grief’ -

The repatriation of their bodies is part of the first six-week phase of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza.

Netanyahu said Thursday would be “a very difficult day for the State of Israel -— a heartbreaking day, a day of grief”.

Under the ceasefire’s first phase, 19 Israeli hostages have been released by militants so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners in a series of Red Cross-mediated swaps.

Of the remaining 14 Gaza hostages eligible for release under phase one, Israel says eight are dead.

The Bibas family members became national symbols of the despair that has gripped the nation since the Hamas attack and hostage takings.

While their deaths are largely accepted as fact abroad after Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed them early in the war, Israel has never confirmed the claim and many remained unconvinced – including the Bibas family.

Late on Wednesday, the Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it had been informed about the “heart-shattering” news of the deaths of the three Bibas family members.

The Bibas family said it would wait for a confirmation.

“Should we receive devastating news, it must come through the proper official channels after all identification procedures are completed,” it said in a statement late Wednesday.

The national forensic medicine institute in Tel Aviv has mobilised 10 doctors to expedite the identification process, public broadcaster Kan reported.

- Single swap -

Israel and Hamas announced a deal earlier this week for the return of the remains of eight hostages in two groups this week and next, as well as the release of the last six living Israeli captives on Saturday.

The hostages’ forum named the six as Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al-Sayed, and Avera Mengistu.

The ceasefire in Gaza has held despite accusations of violations on both sides. It has also been under strain from US President Donald Trump’s widely condemned plan to take control of rubble-strewn Gaza and relocate its population of more than two million Palestinians.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that talks would begin “this week” on the truce’s second phase, which is expected to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Wednesday that Hamas was ready to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during phase two.

He did not clarify how many hostages were currently being held by Hamas or other militant groups.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during their attack. Prior to Thursday’s handover, there were 70 hostages in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.