Israeli authorities are expected to release on Tuesday the remains of four Palestinians, including a senior Hamas commander, after being held for years.
The remains belong to Ezzelddin al-Masri, Tawfiq Mahamid and brothers Emad and Adel Awadallah, a Palestinian NGO that advocates for the return of Palestinians' remains held by Israel said in a statement.
It added that the remains are to be handed over to Palestinian families at Netanya crossing, west of Tulkarm, at 5pm GMT.
Hamas has called on its supporters in the West Bank to participate in the Wednesday funeral of Adel Awadallah, a senior leaders of its military wing, Ezzeldin al-Qassam Brigades.
Adel was assassinated along with his brother Emad in the West bank city of Al-Khalil in 1998. Their bodies have been held by Israel ever since.
Al-Masri was killed in 2001 when he blew himself up in a restaurant in west Jerusalem, one year before Mahamid did the same in Umm al-Fahm, in northern Israel.
Israel is holding the remains of hundreds of Palestinians killed during attacks on Israeli targets.
They are buried in a cemetery known as "the Numbers Graveyard" because the tombstones are nameless and only identified by numbers.
Last October, Israel's Supreme Court allowed Palestinian families to conduct DNA tests with the aim of identifying the bodies of relatives buried in the cemetery.
By Alaa Rimawi
englishnews@aa.com.tr
