Israel braced on Thursday for the return of the bodies of infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in their October 7, 2023 attack and among the most potent symbols of the trauma inflicted that day.

An Israeli official says the bodies of the youngest and one of the oldest captives seized by Hamas during the attack that ignited the war in Gaza are expected to be returned on Thursday

Hamas handed to the Red Cross the remains of four Israelis it had taken hostage in Oct. 2023 — a young mother, her two small children and a man in his 80s — as the shaky Gaza truce stumbled ahead.