Tel Aviv (AFP) - Thousands of mourning Israelis observed a moment of silence Thursday in honour of four dead hostages returned by Hamas, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the group as “monsters” for staging a public handover of their bodies in Gaza.

Hamas said the remains included those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, who for many Israelis had come to symbolise the hostages’ ordeal since their abduction on October 7, 2023.

It was the first handover of bodies under the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, prompting scenes that were in sharp contrast to the ones of collective relief that accompanied past releases of living hostages.

A crowd gathered in the Tel Aviv plaza dubbed “Hostages Square” Thursday night for a rally in solidarity with the families of the dead hostages.

Attendees bowed their heads and choked back tears as they observed a minute of silence in memory of the deceased.

At around the same time, police in central Israel reported a “suspected terror attack”, saying three bombs had exploded on or around buses and more were being defused, though no injuries were immediately reported.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian militants staged a ceremony to return the bodies of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, as well as a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, at a former cemetery in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis.

Ahead of the handover, Hamas and members of other armed Palestinian groups displayed four black coffins on a stage.

Each casket bore a small photo of the deceased, while mock-up missiles nearby carried the message: “They were killed by USA bombs,” a reference to Israel’s top military supplier.

Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed the Bibas family early in the war, but Israel has never confirmed the claim.

“We are all enraged at the monsters of Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said in a video message, vowing again to destroy the group.

The United Nations also slammed what it called the “abhorrent and cruel” staging of the event.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the hostage and prisoner releases so far, called for handovers of bodies “to be done privately out of utmost respect for the deceased and those left grieving”.

- Bus blasts -

Israeli police said Thursday evening three bombs had detonated and two were being disabled at separate locations after blasts rocked the central city of Bat Yam.

“These are identical explosive devices with a timer,” a police spokesman told AFP.

Television footage aired by some Israeli networks showed burnt and burning buses, while some outlets reported bus drivers countrywide had been asked to stop and inspect their vehicles for other devices.

Large numbers of police had been deployed to search for suspects, the police statement said.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said that following the “serious attempted attacks”, he had “instructed the IDF (military) to intensify operations to thwart terrorism in the Tulkarem refugee camp and in all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria”, using the biblical term for the occupied West Bank.

- The youngest hostage -

Earlier in the day, flag-waving Israelis had lined the route along which a convoy carrying the hostages’ bodies travelled from southern Israel to Tel Aviv.

Tania Coen Uzzielli, 59, who had come to Hostages Square early, said it was “one of the hardest days, I think, since October 7”.

The National Institute of Forensic Medicine, where the bodies were taken, confirmed that Lifshitz – 83 at the time of his capture and a veteran journalist and peace activist – was among those handed over.

It did not confirm the identities of the other three, however, saying on Thursday evening that it “continues the identification process”.

During their October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war, Hamas filmed and later broadcast footage showing the Bibas family’s abduction from their home near the Gaza border.

Ariel was then aged four, while Kfir was the youngest hostage at just nine months old. Yarden Bibas, the boys’ father and Shiri’s husband, was abducted separately and released in a previous hostage-prisoner swap on February 1.

Hamas said in a statement that it and its armed wing had done “everything in their power to protect the prisoners (hostages) and preserve their lives”.

Tahani Fayad, 40, was among the hundreds of people gathered to witness the handover ceremony in Gaza, which she called “proof that the occupation will not defeat us”.

- Next phase -

The bodies’ repatriation is part of the six-week initial phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on January 19.

Under the first phase, militants have so far freed 19 living Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.

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

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

Palestinian prisoners are also set to be freed in Saturday’s swap, but were not part of Thursday’s handover.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said talks will begin this week on the truce’s second phase, aiming to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

A Hamas spokesman on Thursday accused Netanyahu of “procrastinating regarding the second phase”, saying the group was “ready to engage”.

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.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack. Prior to Thursday’s handover, there were 70 hostages still 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 48,319 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.