GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday that it had received the remains of 30 Palestinian prisoners from Israel via Red Cross teams, bringing the total number to 120 since a ceasefire deal took effect on Friday.

In a statement, the ministry said that its teams were conducting medical procedures to examine, document, and deliver the deceased to their families.

Four of the bodies have been identified by their families so far, it added.

“Signs of abuse, beating, handcuffs, and blindfolding were visible on some of the bodies,” the ministry said.

The transfer of the bodies came under the Gaza ceasefire agreement that took effect on Friday between Israel and Hamas. Phase one of the deal included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel currently keeps the bodies of 735 Palestinian prisoners, including 67 children, the Palestinian National Campaign for the Retrieval of Martyrs’ Bodies said.

According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Israel keeps nearly 1,500 bodies of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev Desert, southern Israel.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.