Israel says it has received body of another hostage from Gaza amid dispute over handover delays | Israel-Gaza war
The Red Cross handed over the body of another Gaza hostage to the IDF, Israel said early Saturday, amid a dispute between Hamas and Israel over delays in returning remains under a ceasefire agreement.
The coffin, which Israeli military and security forces received from the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, was to be sent to the Ministry of Health’s National Forensic Medicine Center in Israel. Israeli officials said that after the official identification process, the family of the deceased will be informed first.
The handover came after Hamas’s military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, said the remains belonged to a “prisoner of occupation”; this suggested that they belonged to an Israeli rather than one of the many other nationality hostages taken in Gaza.
This was the 10th dead hostage taken by Israel out of 28 bodies held in Gaza. Citing technical problems, Hamas said it needed heavy machinery and excavation equipment to speed up the process of locating bodies buried under rubble.
On Friday, two bulldozers dug into the ground as Hamas searched for the remains of hostages in the city of Hamad, a collection of apartment towers in the city of Khan Younis. Israeli forces bombed the towers repeatedly during the war, knocking some of them down, and soldiers raided it for a week in March 2024.
Türkiye sent a team of experts to help recover remains buried under the rubble, but the group was still waiting on Friday for Israel to be allowed into the area. Speaking to AFP, a Turkish official said, “It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza,” adding that the team’s mission is to locate Palestinians and hostages. A Hamas source told AFP that the Turkish delegation was expected to enter by Sunday.
Israel, which insisted that Hamas knew the location of the hostages’ bodies, said the group’s time was up. Hamas said it remained committed to the ceasefire agreement and was determined to hand over the bodies of all remaining hostages.
Israel returned the bodies of 90 Palestinians to Gaza for burial. Israel is expected to return more bodies, but authorities have not said how many people are in custody or how many will be returned.
The dispute over the hostages’ remains has cast a shadow over the ceasefire agreement, the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, at a press conference in Ankara, said that Israel’s statements about the bodies of the hostages were worrying. “Will Israel use Hamas’ inability to find the bodies buried under the rubble as an excuse and break the ceasefire? There is concern in the international community about this,” he said.
Earlier Friday, Hamas called on mediators to press for next steps under the ceasefire, including reopening the border, providing aid, starting reconstruction, establishing an administration and completing Israel’s withdrawal.
Under Trump’s plan, approved by mediators Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye, clashes in Gaza were largely stopped. But the Gaza Civil Defense Service said on Friday that 11 people, including seven children and three women, were killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on a vehicle southeast of Gaza City.
The Israeli military did not comment on the incident, and Hamas once again accused Israel of violating the ceasefire.
The 20 live hostages taken by Hamas, along with others, during its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, were returned from Gaza earlier this week.
Israel said on Thursday it was preparing to reopen Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt to allow Palestinians to enter and exit, but did not give a date as it blamed Hamas for violations of the ceasefire.
Other unresolved elements of the plan include the disarmament of militants and the future governance of Gaza.
With Reuters, Associated Press and France-Presse Agency
