Red Cross Recovers Remains of Dead Hostage in Gaza, Per Israeli Authorities
The Israeli Defense Forces announced that a coffin of a deceased hostage has been transferred to the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip and is now on its way to Israeli forces within the territory.
In a post on social media, the Israeli military urged the public to show respect and wait for official identification, which will first be provided with the families.
It stressed that Hamas was obligated to hand over all dead captives under a Gaza ceasefire agreement.
This follows an previous announcement from Hamas that it would transfer the remains of an Israeli captive on Friday.
Hamas recently returned the remains of several of the 28 deceased captives in Gaza, and released all 20 living hostages.
There is fury in Israel that the organization has not handed over all remains according to last week's ceasefire deal – although the United States has downplayed the suggestion that it constitutes a violation.
In its posts on the platform late on Friday, the IDF gave no additional information on the location the remains would be taken after its handover by the Red Cross.
At the same time, sources reported that a small ceremony – led by a military rabbi – would be held in Gaza, and the remains would then be taken to the city for identification.
Hamas has stated it remained committed to the ceasefire, including eagerness to hand over every deceased individual.
The Palestinian group claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of impeding its ability to search for the bodies of captives by preventing heavy machinery and diggers into the area.
Speaking at a memorial for those killed of the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack, Netanyahu said he was determined to secure the return of the deceased captives still in the strip, and that the nation would continue to fight terrorism with full force.
As part of the truce agreement mediated by the former US president, Israel freed two hundred fifty detainees in Israeli jails and 1,718 individuals from the territory.
Following Hamas said it was not able to retrieve all the bodies, two senior Trump advisers said preparations to move to the subsequent stage of the agreement were continuing.
The advisers told reporters that the US government did not at this time believe the organization had violated the deal by failing to recover additional bodies, and said the group had operated sincerely by sharing information with interlocutors.
Although the complete details of the accord between Israel and Hamas has not been made public, an unofficial copy which surfaced in news outlets seemed to permit the chance that not all of the remains would be readily available.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack, in which militants killed about 1,200 people in the southern part of the country and captured 251 people.
No fewer than sixty-seven thousand nine hundred sixty-seven people have been fatally injured by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose data are considered accurate by international bodies.