Health officials in Gaza have said Israel has handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians.
Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson at the Gaza health ministry, said Nasser Hospital in Gaza received the bodies on Monday morning.
It comes a day after Palestinian militants returned to Israel the remains of three Israeli troops taken hostage on October 7th, 2023.
Israeli forces in Gaza received coffins carrying the bodies of three hostages, conveyed through the Red Cross, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said. The remains will be transported to Israel for identification.
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The positive identification of the Israeli troops’ remains marked another step forward for the tenuous, US-brokered ceasefire.
The military said the men were killed in the attack on southern Israel and their bodies were dragged by militants back to Gaza.
The office of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu identified the three as Capt Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli, Staff Sgt Oz Daniel and Col Assaf Hamami.
A Hamas statement earlier said their remains were found on Sunday in a tunnel in southern Gaza.
Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10th, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 20 hostages, with eight now remaining in Gaza.
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US president Donald Trump said on Sunday he had spoken with Capt Neutra’s family, describing their relief and heartbreak.
“They were thrilled, in one sense, but in another sense, obviously, it’s not too great,” Mr Trump said.
Militants have released one or two bodies every few days. Israel has urged faster progress, and in certain cases it has said the remains were not those of any hostage. Hamas has said the work is complicated by widespread devastation.
Israel in turn has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians for each Israeli hostage returned. Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify bodies without access to DNA kits.
Only 75 of the 225 Palestinian bodies returned since the ceasefire began have been identified, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which has posted photos of remains in the hope that families will recognise them.
The American-Israeli, Capt Neutra, was 21 when he died. In the October 7th attack, he was abducted with the rest of his tank crew. In December 2024, the military announced Capt Neutra had been killed in the attack that started the war.
Capt Neutra’s parents were a regular presence at protests in the US and Israel, and addressed the Republican National Convention last year.
The militants took the body of Staff Sgt Daniel (19) from his tank, along with three others. He is survived by his parents and twin sister.
Col Hamami commanded Israel’s southern brigade in the Gaza division and died early on October 7th, 2023, in fighting to defend Kibbutz Nirim.
According to Israeli media, Col Hamami was the first person in the military to declare that Israel was at war, less than 10 minutes after the attack began.
Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike killed one man in northern Gaza. The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck a militant who was posing a threat to its forces. Al-Ahli Hospital said one man was killed in the airstrike near a vegetable market in the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.
“There are still Hamas pockets in the areas under our control in Gaza, and we are systematically eliminating them,” Mr Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks at the start of a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
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Hamas released what it described as a list of violations of the ceasefire by Israel. Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, denied that Hamas fighters had violated the truce by attacking Israeli soldiers.
The ceasefire has calmed most fighting, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the ruins of their homes in Gaza. Israel has withdrawn troops from positions in cities and more aid has been allowed in.
Hamas released all 20 living hostages held in Gaza in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees held by Israel.
Hamas also agreed under the ceasefire to hand over the remains of 28 dead hostages in exchange for the bodies of 360 Palestinian militants killed in the war. Before Sunday it had turned over 17.
Meanwhile, violence has not completely halted. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 236 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce, nearly half of them in a single day last week when Israel retaliated for an attack on its troops. Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed and it has targeted scores of fighters.
The ceasefire was mediated by the United States, and both sides have appealed to Washington to halt violations.
About 200 US troops have set up base in southern Israel to monitor the ceasefire and help make plans for an international force to stabilise the enclave, as foreseen in later phases of US president Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
There has been little sign of progress on the next stages so far, and significant obstacles still lie ahead, including the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. – PA/Reuters
