According to the Israeli military, one of the four bodies handed over by Hamas under the ceasefire is not that of a hostage. Israel has demanded the return of the bodies of all 28 dead hostages. So far Hamas has handed over 20 live hostages and 8 dead bodies.
Tel Aviv: The Israeli military claimed that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas on Tuesday under the Gaza ceasefire agreement did not match that of any of the hostages. On Tuesday, Hamas handed over four bodies to ease pressure on the ongoing fragile ceasefire agreement. On Monday, after releasing 20 surviving hostages, 4 bodies were handed over. Israel is waiting for the bodies of a total of 28 dead hostages. The Israeli military said that after a late-night forensic examination of four bodies found on Tuesday, medical officials confirmed that one of them did not match those of the hostages. The army also warned that Hamas would do everything necessary to return the dead hostages.
8 dead bodies handed over
As part of a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Hamas has handed over 20 live Israeli hostages and eight bodies since Monday, the AFP news agency reported. These include a Nepali citizen, 6 Israelis and an unidentified body. Furthermore, it is also reported that the remains of bodies of 45 Palestinians handed over by Israel to a hospital in Gaza have been found. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that Hamas fully comply with the terms of the agreement to hand over the bodies of dead hostages. “We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts until the last dead hostage is brought back,” he said.
Allegation of breach of agreement and response
The ceasefire plan proposed by the US demanded that all living and dead hostages be handed over by Monday. But if this does not happen, the agreement also stipulated that information about the dead hostages should be shared and efforts should be made to hand over the bodies as soon as possible. Even during an earlier ceasefire, Hamas had handed over the wrong body to Israel. Hamas said it had handed over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two children, but an investigation revealed that one of the bodies was that of a Palestinian woman, much to the chagrin of the Israelis. Bibas’s body was identified a day later. Hamas spokesman Hassem Qassem said in a Telegram message that his group was trying to hand over the bodies under the ceasefire agreement. They also alleged that Israel’s shelling of eastern Gaza City and Rafah on Tuesday was a violation of the agreement. However, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that the military was operating in accordance with deployment limits stated in the agreement and that anyone coming near this limit would be targeted. He cited the firing on some terrorists on Tuesday as the reason for this.