Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, said in a briefing Sunday that Israel is “hours away from the release of all of our hostages.”
The briefing gave a few other details about what is expected over the coming hours.
“We are expecting all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time to the Red Cross and transported among six to eight vehicles without any sick displays by Hamas,” Bedrosian said. “Hostages will be driven to forces inside of Israel-controlled parts of Gaza and then transferred to the Reim base in Southern Israel, where they will then reunite with their families.”
She added that the living hostages would be sent to three hospitals in Israel.
On the handover of the remains of the deceased hostages, Bedrosian said that “once Red Cross hands over [the] deceased hostage remains to Israeli forces in Israeli-controlled territories inside Gaza, they will hold a short ceremony in the Gaza Strip. During that handover, the coffins will be draped with Israeli flags and traditional Jewish memorial prayers for the dead will be said.”
She said the remains would then be brought to a forensic institute inside Israel for identification, after which, “in coordination with the Jewish law and of course tradition, their families will be notified in an appropriate timeframe to bury their loved ones in a timely fashion.”
Some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners (250 serving life sentences and about 1700 who have been detained since Oct. 7, 2023), she said, will be released once Israel has confirmation that all hostages have crossed the border into Israel.
“And once we have that confirmation, we are expecting that the prisoners will already be on the buses. But once the confirmation comes through, they have crossed into Israeli territory, those buses will start and they will begin their journey,” Bedrosian said.
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