Hamas has released the first bodies of hostages held in Gaza that are said to include infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel.
Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu said "the heart of the entire nation is torn", as Hamas released the two bodies of the two youngsters and their mother, Shiri Bibas, as well as that of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, 84.
Red Cross vehicles arrived at the handover site in Khan Younis on Thursday morning, where four black coffins were placed on a stage.
Hamas fighters then carried the coffins to Red Cross vehicles, where personnel in red vests covered them in white sheets before placing them inside. The convoy headed back to Israel, where authorities will identify the remains.
A disturbing propaganda display was set up next to the four black coffins - with mock munitions labelled 'They were killed by USA bombs' and a poster depicting Netanyahu as a vampire - as Hamas claims there deaths came in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza.
Kfir Bibas was nine months old when the Bibas family, including their father Yarden, was abducted at Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 Hamas attack in 2023.
Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day.
People carrying Israeli flags lined the 232 road near the Gaza border to pay tribute as a convoy transporting the bodies to Israel's forensic institute for identification, before a formal death announcement is made, drove past.
"We all hoped that this story would end differently. This is so sad and painful," said Noan Zuntz, from a nearby kibbutz.
Most of the women and children among the 251 abducted in the Hamas-led attack were freed in a swap deal for Palestinian prisoners and detainees, women and minors, in a brief truce in late November 2023.
But they did not include Shiri and the children
Hamas claimed in November 2023 that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike but their deaths were never confirmed by Israeli authorities.
Yarden Bibas was returned in an earlier exchange of hostages for prisoners this month.
But the family said this week their "journey is not over" until they received final confirmation of what happened to the boys and their mother.
"We wake up to a difficult morning for all of us. A morning that sharpens the cruelty of our enemies and the justice of our determined war against them until they are destroyed from the face of the earth," Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.
In Tel Aviv, Israelis gathered at what has come to be known as Hostages Square, outside Israel's defence headquarters, as sorrow set in across the country.
"I think today is one of the saddest days of my 40 years in Israel," said Nicky Cregor, 60, a social worker from Jerusalem. "I feel that we have an endless wound in our hearts that is going to take a long time to heal."
The handover will be the first return of dead bodies during the current ceasefire agreement and Israel is not expected to confirm their identities until full DNA checks have been completed.
Despite accusations on both sides of ceasefire breaches, the fragile agreement that took effect on January 19 has held up since the first in a series of exchanges of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.
Netanyahu has faced criticism from his far-right coalition allies for agreeing to the deal, which some in Israel feel rewards Hamas and leaves the militant group in place in Gaza.
But successive surveys have shown broad support among the public for the ceasefire, and thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to demand the government stick to the deal until all the remaining hostages are returned.
Thursday's handover of bodies will be followed by the return of six living hostages on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians, expected to be women and minors detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the first phase of an agreement intended to open the way towards ending the war in Gaza.
So far 19 Israeli hostages have been released, as well as five Thais who were returned in an unscheduled handover.
Negotiations for a second phase, expected to cover the return of around 60 remaining hostages, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip to allow an end to the war, are expected to begin in the coming days.
