KHAN YUNIS, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, FEB 20 (AFP/APP/DNA):Hamas is set to hand over the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including those of the Bibas family, who have become 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 return of 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, would take place in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

Ahead of the transfer hundreds of people gathered around a sandy lot formerly used as a cemetery. 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 a stage where a carefully choreographed ceremony had been planned — 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.

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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 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 have become national symbols of the despair that has gripped the nation since the Hamas attack.

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 remain 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 from official channels.

“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.

Israeli authorities have not officially named any of those to be returned, but Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that it had received a list of the hostages whose bodies were to be handed over and that the families had been informed.

The National Forensic Medicine Institute in Tel Aviv has mobilised 10 doctors to expedite the identification process, public broadcaster Kan reported.