AVIV TEL A Middle Eastern official briefed on the situation told NBC News Monday that Hamas has informed Israel that eight of the 26 Israeli detainees scheduled for release as part of the ceasefire’s first phase are dead.
The extremist organization is thought to have disclosed the precise number of captives killed or alive for the first time. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson later said that these figures were consistent with data obtained by Israeli intelligence.
Earlier this month, the first three Israeli hostages—Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and dual British citizen Emily Damari—were released in return for 90 Palestinian prisoners, the majority of whom were women and children.
200 Palestinian inmates, many serving life sentences after being found guilty of deadly attacks, were exchanged for the release of four female Israeli soldiers on Saturday.
33 hostages and about 2,000 Palestinian inmates will be released as part of the ceasefire’s first phase, which is scheduled to last until early March. Negotiations for the second phase are still ongoing.
Israel stopped Palestinian civilians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza on Saturday, putting the tenuous truce in peril. It claimed that by failing to free hostage Arbel Yehoud, Hamas had broken the deal.
Although Qatar, one of the main mediators in the negotiations to cease the war, indicated in a statement on Monday that Yehoud and two other captives will be released before Friday, Hamas also accused Israel of breaching the agreement.
Many in Israel hope that Kfir Bibas, the youngest prisoner still held captive in Gaza, will be among the three other captives who are scheduled to be released on Saturday.
When Kfir, his 5-year-old brother Ariel, and his parents Yarden and Shiri Bibas were abducted during the Hamas-led terrorist strike on October 7, 2023, he was just under 9 months old.
Having never had a birthday outside of confinement, he turned two earlier this month.
During a one-week ceasefire in November 2023, all other child hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners; however, the Bibas family never left Gaza, and on one of the last days of the short-lived truce, Hamas said in a statement that the toddler, his mother, and brother had all been killed in an Israeli airstrike.