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The Red Cross says it has transferred the remains of three unidentified people to Israel late on Friday, which are still being examined by Israeli forensic experts. An Israeli military official they may not be the bodies of the missing hostages.
The source, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to speak to the media, said the remains had earlier been turned over to the Red Cross by Hamas in Gaza.
The handover follows Israel’s return of the bodies of 30 Palestinians to authorities in Gaza on Friday. That completed an exchange after militants turned over remains of two hostages, in a sign that the tense Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement is edging forward, though incrementally.
The exchange came despite Israeli strikes on Gaza this week that killed more than 100 Palestinians. Israeli officials say the aerial attacks on the enclave were carried after an Israeli soldier, stationed in Gaza, was killed in clashes and skirmishes.
The bodies were also transferred with the Red Cross serving as intermediary. The return of the Palestinian remains was confirmed by a doctor at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, where medical workers were scrambling to identify them.
Photos showed the Palestinians’ remains, in white body bags, arranged in rows inside the grounds of Nasser Hospital. Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify bodies as they lack access to DNA kits.
The handover brings the number of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel to 225 since a fragile US-brokered ceasefire came into force on 10 October. Only 75 of those bodies have been identified by families, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
It is unclear if those returned were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks, died in Israeli custody as detainees or were recovered from Gaza by troops during the war.
The bodies returned had been “torn apart and exhumed,” Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said in a post on social media.
“Their flesh had melted, their faces erased by fire, leaving behind only bones and teeth,” he added.
The Israeli military has previously claimed that all bodies returned so far are those of Hamas combatants. The military has said it operates in accordance with international law. Families of the bodies which have been identified however claim they were not.
Hamas has now returned all 20 living hostages, in addition to the remains of 17 deceased ones since the start of the ceasefire. 11 others still in Gaza and are required to be turned over under the terms of the agreement, based on US President Donald Trump’s proposal.
Israel said nine bodies of the remaining deceased hostages are Israeli nationals, while the other two were workers from Thailand and Tanzania.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to resume the fighting if the bodies are not returned quickly. Hamas was required to deliver all remaining hostages, living and deceased, on Monday 13 October.
The Gaza-based group however stated that it will take time as most of the hostages’ remains are buried under heavy rubble and require extensive excavation efforts.
The group has also pleaded for heavy machinery on numerous occasions to be able to retrieve the bodies and turn them over, but Israel has refused to provide such equipment.
Hamas has also accused Israel of over 50 violations of the truce so far, ranging from opening fire on Palestinians, sponsoring armed rebels to incite chaos and limiting aid, and have called on the international community to ensure Israel abides by the terms of the agreement.
Additional sources • AP