Israel said it had received from the Red Cross on Tuesday the remains of a deceased hostage who had been held by Palestinian militants in Gaza, with the bodies of two still to be located more than six weeks into a fragile ceasefire.
The office of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not name the deceased former hostage, saying the remains would be handed over to the National Center of Forensic Medicine for identification.
Under the October deal between Hamas and Israel after two years of devastating war, Hamas freed all 20 surviving hostages held in Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees held by Israel.
The pact also stipulated the return of the remains of 28 hostages in exchange for the remains of 360 Palestinian militants.
READ MORE
Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced it found the body earlier this week in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza.
Hamas says it has not been able to reach all the remains because they are buried under rubble from Israel’s two-year offensive. Israel has accused the militants of dragging their feet and threatened to resume military operations or withhold humanitarian aid if all remains are not returned.
The war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. Almost all of the hostages or their remains have been returned in ceasefires or other deals.
Gaza’s health ministry says 69,775 Palestinians have been killed and 170,863 injured by Israel. The toll has gone up during the ceasefire, both from new Israeli strikes and from the recovery and identification of bodies of people killed earlier in the war.
The ministry reports 345 have been killed and, in total, 588 bodies recovered since the ceasefire began.
It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures, but has said women and children make up a majority of those killed.
Meanwhile, Egyptian state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV said on Tuesday that the Cairo government had hosted a follow-up meeting for mediators and guarantors of the ceasefire deal.
It was attended by Egypt’s head of intelligence, the Qatari prime minister and the head of Turkish intelligence, the channel said, without mentioning when the gathering was held.
They discussed joint efforts to implement the second phase of US president Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for postwar Gaza and overcome challenges including ceasefire violations to ensure its consolidation, Al-Qahera reported.
A Hamas delegation, led by its exiled chief Khalil al-Hayya, held talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo over the past two days to explore how to carry out the next steps in Mr Trump’s plan, which would include a transitional governing authority for Gaza and a multinational security force.
Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10th, Israel and Hamas have traded blame for deadly truce violations and accused each other of pushing back against later steps required by Mr Trump’s plan. – Reuters
