Israel’s military says a coffin of a deceased hostage has been transferred to the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip and is now “on the way to IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops” in the territory.
Posting on X, the IDF urged the public to “act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification, which will first be provided to the families”.
It stressed that Hamas was required to “return all the deceased hostages” in accordance with a Gaza ceasefire agreement.
This follows an earlier Hamas statement that it would hand over the body of an Israeli hostage on Friday.
Hamas this week returned the bodies of nine of the 28 dead hostages in Gaza, and freed all 20 living hostages.
There has been fury in Israel that Hamas has not returned all the bodies in line with last week’s ceasefire deal – though the US has downplayed the suggestion it amounts to a breach.
In its posts on X late on Friday, the IDF gave no further details where the hostage’s coffin would be taken after its transfer by the Red Cross.
Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reported that a small ceremony – led by a military rabbi – would be held in Gaza, and the remains would then be taken to Tel Aviv for identification.
Hamas has said it remained committed to the ceasefire, including “keenness to hand over all remaining corpses”.
The Palestinian group accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of impeding its ability to search for hostages’ remains by not allowing heavy machinery and diggers into Gaza.
Speaking at a memorial for victims of the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack, Netanyahu said he was “determined” to secure the return of the dead hostages still in Gaza, and that the country would continue to fight terrorism with “full force”.
As part of the US President Donald Trump-brokered ceasefire deal, Israel freed 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
After Hamas said it was unable to retrieve all the bodies, two senior Trump advisers said preparations to move to the next phase of the ceasefire deal were continuing.
The advisers told reporters that the US government did not so far believe Hamas had broken the agreement by not retrieving more remains, and said the group had acted in good faith by sharing information with interlocutors.
While the full text of the agreement between Israel and Hamas has not been made public, a leaked version which appeared in Israeli media appeared to allow for the possibility that not all of the bodies would be immediately accessible.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage.
At least 67,967 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.
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