Hamas has handed over the bodies of the four Israeli hostages who were abducted on October 7, in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of the final exchange under the fragile ceasefire deal.

Israeli officials said the terror group released the bodies to the Red Cross on Wednesday night and that an identification process had begun.

The bodies had previously been identified by Hamas as those of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur, who were all abducted from their homes near the Gaza border during the October 7 2023 attacks.

Official notice would be given to the hostages’ families once the identification process was complete, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

A full forensic examination to determine their cause of death would come later, the Israeli health ministry added.