Red Cross receives two bodies that Hamas says are Gaza hostages

The Israeli army said the Red Cross received two bodies that it said were Hamas hostages in Gaza.

The remains will be transported to Israel and officially identified. Hamas had previously announced that the bodies were found in Palestinian territory on Saturday.

The remains of 10 of the 28 hostages who died before Saturday had been returned to Israel.

The delay sparked outrage in Israel, as the terms of last week’s ceasefire agreement stipulated the release of all hostages, living and dead, in Gaza. Hamas says it is having difficulty finding bodies buried under the rubble.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office ordered the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to remain closed until further notice and said its reopening would be considered contingent on the return of the last remains of hostages and implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

The Rafah crossing is vital for Palestinians in need of medical assistance to leave the country and for thousands more to return.

The IDF stressed that Hamas must “comply with the agreement and take the necessary steps for the return of all hostages.”

But the United States downplayed claims that the delay amounted to a violation of the ceasefire agreement, which President Donald Trump claimed as a major victory. A visit to Israel and Egypt last week.

The text of the agreement was not published A leaked version seen in Israeli media He appeared to take into account the possibility that not all of the bodies could be recovered immediately.

Hamas accused Israel of making the mission difficult because air strikes on Gaza reduced many buildings to rubble and Israel did not allow heavy machinery and diggers to enter the area.

UN humanitarian aid chief Tom Fletcher told the BBC News Channel that the Gaza Strip has “now turned into a barren land” and that people are trying to find their homes among the rubble to find bodies, most of which have been destroyed.

As part of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, Hamas returned all 20 living hostages to Israel.

The Israeli military confirmed on Friday the identity of the tenth deceased hostage returned by Hamas. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) he named him Eliyahu MargalitHis body was taken from the Nir Oz kibbutz after he was killed on 7 October 2023.

Also as part of the agreement, Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and 1,718 detainees in Gaza.

The Hamas-run health ministry said the bodies of 15 Palestinians were handed over to authorities in Gaza by Israel through the Red Cross on Saturday, bringing the total number of bodies they received to 135.

In a separate incident on Saturday, 11 members of a Palestinian family were killed. Killed by Israeli tank shellIt was the deadliest incident involving Israeli soldiers in Gaza since the beginning of the ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run civil defense ministry.

The Israeli army said soldiers opened fire on a “suspicious vehicle” that crossed the so-called yellow line in Gaza, which borders the area still occupied by Israeli forces.

There is no physical sign for this line and it is unclear whether the bus crosses this line. The BBC requested the coordinates of the incident from the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli military launched an operation in Gaza in response to an October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel in which Hamas-led gunmen killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

At least 68,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

In September, a UN commission of inquiry said: Israel committed genocide against Palestinians In Gaza. Israel categorically rejected the report as “distorted and inaccurate”.