The bodies of two more people held hostage by Hamas were handed over to Israel on Wednesday. Just hours before this, the Israeli army had said that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas on Tuesday under the ceasefire agreement was not that of a person held hostage in Gaza. The confusion has further heightened tensions over the fragile agreement that ended the two-year-long war.
The Red Cross transported the bodies handed over by Hamas to Israel on Wednesday. After the two coffins reached Israel, the army said in a statement that the identities of the hostages had not yet been verified.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s health ministry said it had received the bodies of 45 more Palestinians from Israel, another step towards implementing the ceasefire agreement. With this the total number of bodies brought to Gaza has reached 90.
Meanwhile, the forensic team said that after examining the bodies, they found indications of abuse. Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas handed over the bodies of four hostages to Israel on Tuesday. Earlier on Monday, four bodies were handed over and the remaining 20 surviving hostages were released. In total, Israel is awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 dead hostages.
The Israeli military said forensic tests showed that “the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas on Tuesday does not match any of the hostages.” There was no immediate information available on whose body it was. Israel released about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners on Monday in exchange for the release of hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday demanded that Hamas meet the conditions set in the ceasefire agreement presented by US President Donald Trump regarding the return of the bodies of hostages.
“We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts until we recover the body of the last deceased hostage,” he said. This is not the first time that Hamas has returned a wrong body to Israel.
During the last ceasefire earlier this year, the group said it had handed over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and his two sons. But during investigation in Israel, one of the bodies returned was identified as that of a Palestinian woman.,
Bibas’s body was brought back a day later and identified. Hamas and the Red Cross have said recovering the bodies of hostages is a challenge due to the widespread destruction in Gaza, and Hamas has told ceasefire mediators that some of the hostages are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.
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