February 26, 2025 | 02:38 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Israeli and Hamas officials said on Tuesday that they have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of Israeli hostages with the release of 602 Palestinian prisoners who were supposed to be released last week. As reported by Arab News, this agreement maintains the fragile ceasefire at least until the end of the week.
Israel had postponed the release of 602 Palestinian prisoners since last Saturday, citing the alleged mistreatment of released hostages by Hamas. The Palestinian militant group condemned the delay as a "serious violation" of the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas emphasized that the second phase of ceasefire talks would be unlikely to proceed until the prisoners were released. This deadlock has threatened the Hamas-Israel ceasefire, as the first phase of the six-week agreement was nearing its end this weekend.
However, on Tuesday night, Hamas stated that an agreement had been reached to resolve the dispute during a visit to Cairo by a delegation led by Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior political official in the group.
This breakthrough appears to pave the way for the return of the bodies of four deceased Israeli hostages and the additional release of Palestinian prisoners scheduled to be freed under the ceasefire.
The Palestinian prisoners were previously scheduled for release simultaneously with the bodies of the Israeli prisoners who were agreed to be handed over," along with the release of a new group of Palestinian prisoners," said Hamas.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the agreement to recover the bodies in the coming days. They did not provide further details.
However, Israeli media reports indicated that the exchange could take place as early as Wednesday, February 26, 2025. The news site Ynet reported that the Israeli hostage bodies would be handed over to Egyptian authorities without a public ceremony.
Hamas had previously conducted large public ceremonies for released hostages and the bodies of four deceased hostages. Israel accused Hamas of parading the hostages and forcing them to wave to a large crowd. Israel, along with the Red Cross and UN officials, stated that the ceremony humiliated the hostages, and Israel postponed the release of prisoners scheduled for last weekend in protest.
In a contrasting scene, during a recent hostage release, an Israeli male hostage was seen kissing the forehead of a Hamas fighter.
The latest agreement will complete the obligations of both sides from the first phase of the ceasefire, where Hamas returned 33 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
So far, 29 Israeli hostages, plus five Thai nationals, have been released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, along with the bodies of four more hostages, initially set to be handed over on Thursday.
This development could also pave the way for the expected visit by White House Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region.
Witkoff, expected to be in the region in the coming days, stated that he wants both sides to move into negotiations in the second phase, where all remaining hostages held by Hamas will be released and ending the war will be negotiated. Phase 2 talks were supposed to begin several weeks ago, but never materialized.
The ceasefire, mediated by the US, Egypt, and Qatar, concluded fierce battles over 15 months that erupted after Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and resulted in about 250 hostages.
The Israeli conflict has resulted in the deaths of more than 48,350 Palestinian citizens, mostly women and children, causing about 90 percent of Gaza's population to flee and destroying the region's infrastructure and healthcare system.
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