After Hamas handed over three bodies that were determined not to be hostages, another three bodies were sent to Israel for identification.
By Rachel Avraham
Hamas has handed over three coffins it says contain the bodies of deceased Gaza hostages, according to the Israeli military, the BBC reported. According to the report, Israel has received the coffins, via the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, and transported them to Israel for formal identification.
Ahead of the handover, Hamas wrote on its Telegram channel: “The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the bodies … that were found earlier today along the route of one of the tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip at 8:00 pm Gaza time [1800 GMT].”
About an hour later, the Israeli military confirmed that the International Red Cross had received the bodies of three people, DW reported. “Three coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their [Red Cross] custody and are on their way to IDF troops in the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office announced a few minutes later that the Red Cross had passed the bodies to the Israeli army, adding that the remains would be identified at a forensic medical facility.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official X account said: “All of the hostages’ families have been updated accordingly, and our hearts are with them in this difficult hour. The effort to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned.”
Israel said on Saturday that three of the bodies handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross on Friday were not hostages who were taken during the October 7th massacre, Politico reported. According to the report, a forensic analysis done overnight revealed that the remains are not any of the remaining bodies, an Israeli army spokesman said on Saturday, Politico noted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Saturday confirmed that the remains did not belong to any of the hostages, without giving further details, the Associated Press reported. “The remains we received are not our hostages,” the office said. The Times of Israel reported that Israel has previously charged that the terror group knows the location of the vast majority of the remaining bodies of hostages, and is purposely stalling.
Earlier this week, Hamas returned the partial remains of Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was recovered by the IDF nearly two years prior, the Times of Israel reported. This comes after the body of Shiri Bibas was initially replaced for an anonymous Palestinian woman. According to the Times of Israel, it is unclear when Hamas will return the bodies of the 11 remaining deceased captives, or how many it has access to.
Israel has handed over the bodies of 225 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 15 Israeli hostages so far returned by Hamas, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese, the BBC reported. Prior to Sunday, nine of the 11 dead hostages still in Gaza were Israelis, one was Tanzanian, and one was Thai, the BBC added.
Photo from Sky News Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcminxAgwec
