CAIRO, February 27. /TASS/. The Palestinian movement Hamas and its allies have handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Al Jazeera TV channel reported.
According to its sources, the transfer of the remains took place "without ceremony or media representatives" in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. At the moment, as the TV channel claims, ICRC vehicles are heading to the Kerem Shalom checkpoint on the border with Israel.
The Al Hadath and Asharq TV channels disseminated similar information, citing their sources. Hamas has not yet officially commented on these publications.
Soon after that it became known that the first bus with Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons has arrived in the West Bank of the Jordan River. The broadcast is being carried out by the Egyptian TV channel Al Qahera Al Ikhbariya.
The footage shows a large crowd meeting the vehicle with the released prisoners. The bus, belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross, arrived in the administrative capital of the Palestinian territories on the West Bank, the city of Ramallah.
Some of the former prisoners required medical assistance, but most were able to walk on their own. There is no precise information on how many Palestinians were on the first bus.
The ceasefire agreement experienced another crisis moment when, on the night of February 23, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Jewish state had decided to postpone the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners scheduled for February 22 until Hamas renounced the ceremonies accompanying the release of Israeli hostages or the handover of their bodies in the Gaza Strip. However, already on Wednesday night, the radicals announced that Israel would release a group of Palestinians who were supposed to be released on February 22 in exchange for the bodies of the captives.
On January 15, it became known that Israel and Hamas had agreed to release the hostages held in Gaza and introduce a ceasefire in the enclave. The three-stage agreement came into effect on January 19. The first stage will last 42 days, during which Hamas must release at least 33 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.