JERUSALEM: Hamas said Monday it would hand over the remains of a deceased hostage, the 16th since a ceasefire began, shortly after families of missing Israelis called for a suspension of the Gaza truce until all captives’ bodies are returned.
A joint team of Red Cross, Egyptian rescue services and a Hamas member was searching for the remains of hostages demanded by Israel, an Israeli government official said.
“The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades will transfer the body of one of the Israeli captives, recovered today in the Gaza Strip, at 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) Gaza time,” the armed wing of Hamas said on its Telegram channel.
Hamas has so far returned the remains of 15 of the 28 deceased hostages since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on October 10.
It has also freed all 20 surviving hostages as part of the truce deal.
An Israeli group campaigning for the return of all hostages has urged the Israeli government to suspend the truce unless Hamas releases all remaining bodies.
“Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased hostages is held. Two weeks have passed since the deadline set in the agreement for the return of all 48 hostages, yet 13 remain in Hamas captivity,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
“The families urge the government of Israel, the United States administration and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfils all of its obligations and returns every hostage to Israel,” the association said.
- Search for bodies -
During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas militants took 251 people hostage, most had been released, rescued or recovered before this month’s ceasefire.
The attack itself resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza killed at least 68,527 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Hamas says it is committed to the ceasefire and insists it is trying to return all the remaining bodies — 11 Israelis and two workers from Thailand and Tanzania — but that the search has been hampered by the destruction wrought on Gaza during the war.
In a statement to media on Saturday, lead Hamas negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya said: “There are challenges in locating the bodies of Israeli captives because the occupation has altered the terrain of Gaza.
“Moreover, some of those who buried the bodies have been martyred or no longer remember where they buried them.”
In the past two days, Egypt has sent recovery crews and heavy earth-moving equipment into Gaza, with Israeli approval, to help with the recovery operation.
Israeli spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said a team of Red Cross staff, Egyptian rescuers and a Hamas member were searching for bodies and had been allowed to cross the so-called Yellow Line into the area of Gaza controlled by Israeli forces.
“The Red Cross, the Egyptian technical team, and a Hamas person have been permitted to enter beyond the Yellow Line position in Gaza under close (Israeli army) supervision to identify the location of our hostages,” Bedrosian told journalists.
A Red Cross spokesperson also confirmed it was part of the search team.
- Opposition to Turkiye -
No firm timescale has been put on the next stages of the Gaza truce plan, but US President Donald Trump’s administration is working to set up an international security force with troops from Arab and Muslim nations to police the truce.
Israel has voiced strong opposition to Turkiye’s participation in the proposed security force.
At a news conference in Budapest, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said Turkiye under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had “led a hostile approach against Israel, that included not only hostile statements, but also diplomatic and economic measures against Israel.”
“So it is not reasonable for us to let their armed forces enter the Gaza Strip, and we will not agree to that, and we said it to our American friends,” he added.
The US military has also set up a coordination center in southern Israel to monitor the ceasefire and to coordinate aid and reconstruction, but aid agencies are pushing for greater access for humanitarian convoys inside Gaza.
Israel has withdrawn its forces from Gaza’s main cities, but still controls around half of the territory from positions on the Yellow Line, and has resisted calls to allow aid through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said Israel has lifted the state of emergency for areas near the border with Gaza for the first time since the October 2023 attack.
