Hamas on Thursday released the bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who had long been feared dead and had come to embody the nation's agony following the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel which triggered the Gaza war.

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.

Kfir, who was 9 months old when he was taken, was the youngest captive.

Hamas has said all four were killed along with their guards in Israeli airstrikes.

The militants displayed four black coffins on a stage in the Gaza Strip surrounded by banners, including a large one depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire.

The fighters then carried the coffins over to Red Cross vehicles, where staffers in red vests covered them in white sheets before placing them inside.

The Red Cross convoy headed back to Israel, where authorities will carry out the formal identification of the remains using DNA, expected to take up to two days.

Only then will the families be given the final notification. The Israeli military confirmed it had received the coffins.

Thousands of people, including large numbers of masked and armed fighters from Hamas and other factions, gathered at the handover site on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. (AP)