Jerusalem: Israel announced on Sunday that it has received the remains of three hostages from Hamas in Gaza as part of the ongoing exchange of bodies under the ceasefire agreement. Israeli PM Netanyahu’s office confirmed the developments.
The remains were handed over to Israeli forces inside the Gaza Strip by the International Committee of the Red Cross. They will be transferred to the national forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Once the identification process is completed, an official notification will be delivered to the families,” the office said.
If confirmed, this would mean that eight hostages remain in Gaza out of the 28 that Hamas was obligated to return to Israel under the truce. This agreement was in exchange for the remains of 360 Palestinian militants who were killed during the war, as reported by the Xinhua news agency.
Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades announced in a statement that the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, east of Khan Younis. They identified one of the deceased as Colonel Asaf Hamami, an Israeli officer who was killed during the Hamas-led assault on October 7, 2023, while defending Kibbutz Nirim.
In a separate statement, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem emphasised that the handover “aligns with the movement’s firm commitment to continue the exchange process.” He urged mediators to “pressure Israel to fulfill its obligations under the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.”
Despite the ceasefire that took effect over three weeks ago, Gaza health authorities report that at least 236 Palestinians have been killed and 600 have been wounded by Israeli fire since October 11. They also stated that the total death toll from Israeli strikes since October 7, 2023, has reached 68,865.
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File photo: IANS
–IANS
