JERUSALEM: The bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been in Israeli custody were handed over to the Nasser Medical Centre in Gaza, the hospital said. On Tuesday, Hamas had returned the bodies of four hostages, who have now been identified.
Under the Trump deal, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
"The remains of 45 martyrs arrived at the hospital via the Red Cross," the hospital said, adding that it was "part of the exchange agreement".
In a statement, the military named two of the victims as Guy Iluz, an Israeli national, and Bipin Joshi, an agriculture student from Nepal. The names of the other two hostages have not yet been released at the request of their families, the statement added.
Iluz, who was 26 at the time of the attack, had been attending the Nova music festival when Hamas-led militants launched their assault on October 7, 2023. Iluz had worked as a sound technician for famous Israeli musicians.
He reportedly tried to flee the site in a jeep and later hid in a tree, from where he made his last contact with his parents before being captured and taken to the Gaza Strip.
The military said Iluz was injured and abducted alive by militants but later died of his injuries due to lack of medical treatment while in captivity.
It did not specify when he actually died, though his death was announced in December 2023.
Joshi, who was 22 at the time of the attack, was part of a Nepalese agricultural training group that had arrived in Israel three weeks before the Hamas assault.
He was abducted from Kibbutz Alumim and was photographed sheltering with Thai workers shortly before militants reached the area.
"It is assessed that he was murdered in captivity during the first months of the war," the military said.
Joshi's Nepalese friend Himanchal Kattel, the group's only survivor, told AFP that the attackers had thrown a grenade into the shelter, which Joshi caught and threw away before it exploded, saving Kattel's life.
'We will not rest'
"The return of Guy and Bipin...brings some measure of comfort to families who have lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt for over two years," said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main Israeli group campaigning for the release of all hostages.
"We will not rest until all 24 hostages are brought home," it said in a statement.
As Israelis awaited the return of the remaining bodies, the hostages released on Monday were gradually recovering.
"They have been reunited with their families, undergone blood tests, preliminary examinations and are slowly gaining consciousness," said Noa Eliakim Raz, director at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where some of the surviving hostages are being treated.
"Being underground affects all the body's systems," she told journalists, adding that many hostages had experienced weight loss.
"There is no fixed timetable -- each person is recovering at their own pace. It's important that they heal slowly."
Twins Ziv and Gali Berman, who were reunited on Monday, said they had been separated throughout their captivity and held in complete isolation, according to Channel 12.
The two, who were 28 when abducted, described enduring long periods of hunger, alternating with short intervals when they were better fed, the report said.
The bodies of four out of the 28 deceased hostages were returned by Hamas on Monday, following the release of all 20 surviving captives as part of a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. It was not immediately clear when the remaining 24 bodies would be sent back to Israel.
Nearly 2000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are expected to be released as part of the ceasefire agreement.
