The bodies of four hostages kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists and held captive in Gaza for over 16 months were set to be returned to Israel Wednesday in a late-night handover devoid of macabre theatrics that had punctuated previous handovers, officials said hours before the planned transfer.

In exchange for the remains of the four slain hostages, Israel agreed to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners whose releases had been held up by anger in Jerusalem over Hamas’s handling of previous handovers, though statements from Israeli and Palestinian officials left unclear whether the exchange would take place simultaneously as sought by Hamas.

The transfer, the last of the multi-phased ceasefire’s initial stage, will take place around 11 p.m. Wednesday, al Jazeera reported. Israel said only that it would take place Wednesday night, while Hamas indicated that it would be around midnight or early Thursday.

The remains to be returned Wednesday night include the body of Shlomo Mantzur, 85, thought to be the oldest hostage taken on October 7. Israeli military officials announced on February 11 that Mantzur had been killed during the October 7 attack and his body was being held by terrorists in Gaza.

The bodies of Itzik Elgarat, Tsahi Idan and Ohad Yahalomi will also be returned to Israel. Elgarat was 69 at the time of his kidnapping; Idan and Yahalomi were both 49. Their deaths had not previously been announced by the Israel Defense Forces.

The families of Elgarat, Idan and Mantzur confirmed that the IDF informed them that their loved ones were on the list of bodies to be returned.

Yahalomi’s family had not confirmed he was on the list, however, he was the only remaining hostage from the list of captives to be released in the first phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal.

In return for the four, Israel said it was planning to free over 600 Palestinian prisoners, including dozens serving multiple life terms for their roles in deadly terrorist attacks.

Palestinians said 620 prisoners would go free, while Hebrew-language reports in Israel put the number at 602. Israeli authorities did not respond to requests for clarification on the discrepancy.

The group had been initially slated for release on Saturday in exchange for six living hostages freed by Hamas. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered their release delayed Saturday night, demanding an end to “humiliating” Hamas ceremonies that have seen the terror group put hostages on display in front of crowds, including exhibiting the bodies of mother Shiri Bibas and her young sons last week.

Egypt, which has been mediating to help resolve the impasse, will facilitate the delicate transfer. Officials said earlier that the bodies would go from Gaza to Egypt and then to Israel.

Hamas said the exchange would take place simultaneously, but Israeli officials indicated otherwise, possibly arguing another snarl for the fragile agreement.

In a statement, the Israel Prisons Service said that it would only free the Palestinian prisoners after the bodies of the four hostages arrived in Israel.

An Israeli source quoted in some Hebrew-language media outlets said the bodies would need to be positively identified before the prisoner release was completed, a process that could take several hours.

The measure reflected a lack of trust in Israel after Hamas last week handed over the body of a Gazan woman rather than that of Shiri Bibas. The terror group claimed the switch was the result of an error and sent the slain mother’s body to Israel late Friday.

Unlike last week, the Health Ministry said it was preparing to help identify the hostages at the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Gaza border rather than at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) in Jaffa.

Once identified, the bodies will be transported to Abu Kabir for post-mortems to identify causes of death, it said.

According to the Walla news site, a team from Abu Kabir had been dispatched to the Kerem Shalom crossing for the task. Depending on the state of the remains, a field identification could prove impossible, necessitating their transfer to the facility for further examination, which could add hours or days to the process, Walla reported.

The Prime Minister’s Office said no announcement on the return of the bodies would be made until all four had been identified.

A senior Hamas official confirmed that there would be no public ceremony when the four bodies are handed to the Red Cross. An Israeli official confirmed that Hamas had agreed not to hold ceremonies.

However, the officials told The Times of Israel that Hamas had given similar assurances ahead of the release of the bodies of the Bibas family and hostage Oded Lifshitz but did not uphold them, leading Jerusalem to refuse to release Palestinian prisoners before the hostages were freed.

Israel has fumed over public ceremonies staged in Gaza when hostages are handed over to the Red Cross, many of them featuring gaunt and sickly kidnap victims forced to praise their captors in front of crowds of Gazan civilians and armed terror operatives.

On Saturday, Hamas filmed a propaganda clip showing two still-captive Israelis being brought to watch others be released and begging for their own freedom, igniting further anger over what was described as psychological torture.

Hamas has used the events to broadcast its still-extant rule over the Strip despite a 15-month military campaign by Israel to dismantle and disarm the terror group.

Of the prisoners slated to be released, 50 are serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis.

The roster includes the longest-serving inmate likely set to be freed: Nael Barghouti, who has spent a total of 44 years in Israeli custody for killing 27-year-old Israeli bus driver Mordechai Yekuel in his vehicle near Ramallah in 1978. Ammar Zaban, a prominent figure in Hamas who headed the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Intifada, was also set to be freed.

Zaban, who will be deported, was sentenced to 27 life terms for his involvement in numerous terror attacks, including the 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market, which killed 16 people.

Nearly 100 of the ex-inmates were slated for deportation upon their release.

Another 445 inmates who were detained in Gaza following October 7 but never charged were also set to be freed.

On Saturday, Israel Prison Service chief Kobi Yaakobi instructed guards to dress Palestinian prisoners slated for release with shirts sporting a verse from Psalms written in Arabic: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back until their destruction.”

Hamas has so far released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during the ceasefire that began in January. Israel has released hundreds of terror convicts and other Palestinian inmates in exchange.

The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war.

Eight hostages have been rescued alive from captivity by troops, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is also still being held by Hamas.

Should the handover go through, Hamas will still be holding 59 hostages, including 24 believed to still be alive. Aside from Goldin, all were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, as Hamas-led terrorists carried out a deadly attack across southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and devastating whole communities.

Israel invaded Gaza following the attack, vowing to destroy Hamas and recover the hostages, setting off over a year of fighting that has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins.

Under the ceasefire outline agreed to by Israel and Hamas last month, the remaining living hostages are set to be released in a second stage of the deal for an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners, alongside a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza. A third stage would see the remaining bodies sent back to Israel while ending the war and plotting out Gaza’s reconstruction.

The prospects for a second stage are unclear, however, with Netanyahu repeatedly warning that Israel is prepared to return to fighting if more hostages are not let go.

An Israeli official said Israel would demand that Hamas disarm and cede civilian rule of Gaza before moving to the deal’s second stage, but also said the ceasefire in its current form could be extended if Hamas continues releasing hostages under the rubric established in phase one.

The alternative would be a return to all-out war, the official told The Times of Israel, with Jerusalem giving Hamas until March 8 to release more captives.

“The gates of hell will be opened, as they say,” the official said, using a threat that both Israel and Hamas often level at each other.

In the US, President Donald Trump expressed dismay that bodies were being returned, appearing non-plussed at the families campaigning for the bodies of their slain loved ones.

“They think they’re doing us a favor by sending us bodies,” Trump said of Hamas during a cabinet meeting. “This is a vicious group of people.”

“I’ve spoken to a lot of the parents and a lot of the people involved. They want those bodies almost as much and maybe even just as much as they wanted their son or their daughter,” he added. “It’s incredible the level that they want the bodies of these people. They’re dead. They’re dead.”

Agencies contributed to this report.