The BBC hears from the parents of four young women who were taken by Hamas on 7 October and held for 15 months.

Negotiations for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal “will happen this week”, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says, after Israel gave mixed signals about its engagement. Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya says four Israeli captives’ bodies will be handed over in the war-torn enclave on Thursday and six living abductees on Saturday as part of the precarious ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Former Hamas hostage Noa Argamani spoke to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday about her time as a captive in Gaza. She also made a desperate plea for the release of the remaining hostages.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-New York, is sending his condolences after Hamas revealed it was turning over the bodies of a mother and two young children that the terror group killed. Langworthy visited Israel shortly after the October 7 attacks.

An Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas Palestinian militants recounted her ordeal at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, telling the 15-member body she did not think she would make it out alive,

Shiri Bibas, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists, while in captivity was not among the bodies returned to Israel and Hamas officials say it's the result of an Israeli air strike.

The remains were said to be of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel, and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted.

The breakthrough appeared to clear the way for the return of the bodies of four more dead hostages and hundreds of additional prisoners scheduled to be released under the ceasefire.

Israeli and Hamas officials say they have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of dead hostages for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.