Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza on Thursday.
At the handover site, the Palestinian militant group set up a stage where masked militants in uniform stood alongside cheering onlookers.
Four black coffins were displayed with a backdrop showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a bloodied vampire over images of the four deceased hostages.
Text next to the images read, “The war criminal Netanyahu and his army killed them with rockets from Zionist fighter jets.” An Israeli TV presenter described the scene as a “theatre of terror.”
According to Hamas, the deceased include Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir. Israel plans to verify their identities once the bodies are returned.
This is the first time Israeli hostage remains have been handed over since the war in Gaza began following the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Israeli army has previously recovered several hostage bodies from Gaza and returned them to Israel.
Hamas claims that the Bibas family members were killed in Israeli airstrikes during the early months of the war.
