Israel’s forces have taken custody of four coffins with captives’ bodies into the country’s territory, according to a military update.
An identification procedure will be carried out next, the army said, adding that a military ceremony will be held in the Gaza Strip in their memory before the bodies are taken to Israel.
The bodies were brought to the Red Cross in two separate deliveries earlier before they were picked up by Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli forces earlier received two other bodies from the Red Cross officials, who picked them up from Hamas.
Before the process started, Hamas announced it would release the bodies of four captives before the end of the day.
The remains of four captives crossed from Gaza into Israeli territory and made their way to the National Center for Forensic Medicine, where an identification procedure will be carried out, according to a brief Israeli army update.
Israel says it has released more than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, freed Palestinian prisoners were met by a cheering crowd so dense they struggled to get off the bus that delivered them from jail.
“It’s an indescribable feeling, a new birth,” said Mahdi Ramadan, flanked by his parents after his release from prison.
President Trump insisted he has “guarantees” from both sides and other key regional players about the initial phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and future stages.
A new governing body for devastated Gaza – which Trump himself will lead under his own plan – will be established “very quickly”, he added.
Meanwhile, Hamas has gradually sent its men back into the streets of Gaza since the ceasefire began on Friday.
President Trump has suggested Hamas has been given a temporary green light to police war-devastated Gaza.
“They do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time,” he said, responding to a journalist’s question about reports Hamas is battling criminal gangs and instituting itself as a police force.
After the ceasefire took effect, Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Hamas’ Gaza government media office, said the group would not allow a security vacuum and will maintain public safety and property.
Hamas has ruled out any discussion of its arsenal, saying it would be ready to surrender its arms to a future Palestinian state.
Trump’s plan foresees Hamas out of power in a demilitarised Gaza run by a Palestinian committee under international supervision. It calls for the deployment of an international stabilisation mission that will train and support a Palestinian police force.
The Palestinian group says “the liberation of prisoners is a national achievement and a shining milestone in our struggle”.
In a statement on Telegram, Hamas congratulated “freed prisoners, their steadfast families, and the masses of our proud Palestinian people on the achievement of their liberation”.
“Our freed prisoners revealed the most horrific forms of psychological and physical torture they were subjected to over two years in a scene that embodies the harshest forms of sadism and fascism in the modern era.”
Hamas called on human rights and humanitarian organisations to take action over Israel’s “systematic crimes against prisoners”.
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