Dealing With Monsters: Netanyahu After Hamas Offers To Handover Bodies Of 4 Hostages Including 2 Babies

Israel: Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday, labelled the militant group Hamas as ‘monsters.’

The remark came in after an official of Hamas said it would free six Israeli hostages on Saturday and return the bodies of four others on Thursday - the first phase of the ongoing ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. 

Besides the four dead captives, six last living hostages will also be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, in a prerecorded message released on Tuesday, said the dead hostages included the Bibas family that included two young boys - a nine-month-old baby and a four-year-old and their mother.

However, after the leader's message, Israel has not confirmed their deaths as yet and the Prime Minister's office advised the people not to distribute details including pictures, names and any rumours.

Netanyahu in a post on X said, "Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the State of Israel. A shocking day, a day of sorrow. We are bringing home four of our beloved hostages, fallen.

We hug the families, and the heart of an entire nation is torn. My heart is torn. Yours too. And the heart of the entire world needs to be torn, because here we see who we are dealing with, what we are dealing with, what monsters we are dealing with.

We grieve, we hurt, but we are also determined to ensure that something like this will never happen again."

The release of all six this week would accelerate the ceasefire deal, which originally called for Hamas to free three living hostages on Saturday and another three a week later.

When the ceasefire was negotiated, it only demanded the return of the deceased's bodies by the end of the first phase. 

During the early phase, Israel is also set to release all women and children who have been detained from Gaza ever since the war began.