For Jonathan Dekel-Chen, every day this week has been a mixture of joy and grief. He is celebrating the return of his son Sagui, who was released over the weekend as part of the cease-fire deal with Hamas. But reminders of Sagui’s ordeal, and the torments of the remaining hostages, are impossible to escape.
“Today is a day with very mixed feelings,” Mr. Dekel-Chen said in an interview on Thursday.
He had just visited his son in a Tel Aviv-area hospital on a day when Hamas turned over coffins that were said to contain the remains of four of Mr. Dekel-Chen’s neighbors in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where about a quarter of the 400 residents were either killed or taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023.
It has been 504 days since the Hamas-led attack, and roughly 60 hostages have yet to come home. “We need to double down now on getting all the hostages home,” Mr. Dekel-Chen said. The four bodies returned on Thursday were said to include three members of the Bibas family — Ariel Bibas, 4, and Kfir Bibas, who was just 10 months old, and their mother, Shiri Bibas. The Bibases came to symbolize the plight of the captives after videos of them being taken to Gaza went viral.
But early Friday, the Israeli military announced that the remains in what was said to be Ms. Bibas’s coffin did not match the identity of any of the hostages. “This is a violation of utmost severity,” the military said.
The authorities did confirm the children’s remains, and those of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was killed in captivity by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Mr. Lifshitz, a retired journalist, was captured along with his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, who was released weeks into the war for what Hamas called “humanitarian and health reasons.”
She has described abuse and harrowing conditions in Hamas’s underground tunnels, warning that other hostages would not be able to endure them.
Before the war, Mr. Lifshitz volunteered to drive Gazans seeking medical treatment to hospitals in Israel and was a founding member of a branch of Peace Now, a group advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Dekel-Chen, who was friends with Mr. Lifshitz for decades, said he “was a man truly committed to his values.”
Thousands of Israelis paid tribute to Mr. Lifshitz and the other hostages during a Thursday night rally in what has become known as Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. They were also there to pressure the Israeli government to secure the release of those still being held.
Rally speakers demanded that the Netanyahu government not let the cease-fire fall apart. The first phase of the agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect in January and is set to end in less than two weeks. Negotiations on the second phase have been delayed, leaving the fates of dozens of captives up in the air.
The fragile truce has led to the release of hostages from Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails — but there are concerns among the relatives of hostages that there may not be another round of releases.
Yael Adar, whose son Tamir Adar was killed in the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz and whose body has not been returned from Gaza, spoke at the Thursday rally. She said that when Tamir’s son heard that bodies would be returned to Israel this week, he asked if his father would be coming home.
“We told him no, not at this stage. Asaf couldn’t understand why there were stages,” she said.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office said has said that six living hostages would be released on Saturday, instead of three as planned, and that four more bodies would be returned next week.
But relatives are anxious.
Hamas’s failure to return Ms. Bibas raises new questions about whether the next release of hostages and prisoners on Saturday will proceed and the fate of talks on the second phase of the cease-fire deal.
If negotiations on the second phase fail, roughly 60 hostages, some believed to be dead, would most likely remain in Gaza. And if fighting resumes, those who are alive will be in even graver danger.
On Monday, a rally in Hostage Square was held to mark the 500th day of captivity for those being held in Gaza.
Among the speakers was Yeela David, the sister of Evyatar David, who was taken from the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7 attack. “Phase 2 is the last chance to save the lives of dozens,” she said. “If this deal falls apart and Phase 2 doesn’t begin, it will remain a black stain in the pages of our history.”
The hostages that have been freed say there is no time to spare.
Keith Siegel’s wife drove that point home during the Monday rally at Hostage Square. Mr. Siegel was held in Gaza for nearly 500 days, six months of which were spent locked in a small room alone. He was beaten, threatened at gunpoint and reduced by his captors to “nothing,” in the words of his wife, Aviva.
He ate only moldy pita bread, lost 65 pounds and some days thought he would not survive, Ms. Siegel said, describing details of her husband’s experience for the first time.
“He went through 484 days of hell no human being should ever have to experience,” said Ms. Siegel, who was also taken hostage. She was released during a brief truce in November 2023. “I was in Gaza. I survived. Keith survived. Others will not,” Ms. Siegel warned.
It was a theme repeated by other former captives, including Iair Horn, 46, who was freed on Saturday along with two other hostages in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners.
He appeared in a video message at the Monday rally, recorded about 48 hours after his return to Israel, to plead for his brother, Eitan Horn, who was still in Gaza and was not slated to be freed in the first phase of the agreement.
“I was there. I was in Hamas’s tunnels. I experienced it firsthand,” Iair Horn said. “And I’m telling you, the hostages don’t have time. They must be brought back now.”
Since his return, he said, people kept asking what he needs. “I answer them, ‘I need only one thing: Bring back my brother. Bring back my brother and all the hostages.’”