JERUSALEM/ ISTANBUL
Israel said Tuesday that it received the remains of a body from Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said “findings” were handed over by Red Cross teams to the Israeli forces inside Gaza.
It said if the identity of the remains is confirmed to belong to one of the captives still in Gaza, the family will be officially notified.
A senior Red Cross official told The Times of Israel that the transfer included “small remains, pieces” of a body.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas on the report.
However, Husam Badran, a member of the group’s political bureau, said Sunday in an interview with Qatar’s Al Jazeera channel that the issue of the bodies is a “pretext used by the Israeli occupation to avoid fulfilling its obligations.”
Israel ties the start of negotiations for launching the second phase of the ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10 to receiving the bodies of all its captives. It claims that the remains of two Israeli captives are still in Gaza, while Hamas says it has handed over all 20 Israeli captives who were alive and the remains of all 28 who were killed.
Meanwhile, there are 9,500 missing Palestinians killed by the Israeli army whose bodies remain under the rubble, according to Gaza’s Media Office.
The ceasefire deal halted two years of Israeli attacks that have killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others since October 2023.
Israel has repeatedly violated the agreement by opening fire on Palestinian civilians in areas it does not control under the deal, while Hamas has announced its full commitment to the terms of the agreement and urged the US to pressure Israel to comply.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 357 Palestinians have been killed and more than 900 others injured in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire.