Israel receives two bodies that Hamas says are hostages from Gaza

Israel has received two bodies from Gaza that Hamas claimed were hostages, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

The remains, which were transferred through the Red Cross to Israeli forces, were transported to Israel and will be formally identified. Hamas earlier said the bodies were found in Palestinian territory on Saturday.

Before Saturday, the remains of 10 of the 28 hostages who died were returned to Israel.

The delay sparked outrage in Israel, as the terms of last week’s cease-fire agreement called for the release of all hostages, living and dead, from Gaza. Hamas says it is struggling to find the remaining bodies under the rubble.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office ordered the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to remain closed until further notice and said its reopening would be considered based on the return of the last remains of hostages and the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

The Rafah crossing is vital for Palestinians who need medical help to leave and thousands more to return.

The IDF stressed that Hamas must “respect the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all hostages.”

But the US has played down suggestions that the delay is a breach of the ceasefire agreement, which President Donald Trump has declared a major victory visit to Israel and Egypt last week.

The text of the deal has not been published, but a leaked version that was seen in the Israeli media it seemed to explain the possibility that not all bodies were immediately available.

Hamas has accused Israel of making the task difficult, as airstrikes against Gaza have reduced many buildings to rubble, and Israel does not allow heavy machinery and excavators into the territory.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the BBC News Channel that the Gaza Strip was “now a wasteland”, with people digging through the rubble for bodies and trying to find their homes – many of which had been razed to the ground.

As part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, Hamas also returned all 20 live hostages to Israel.

The Israeli military has confirmed the identity of the tenth dead hostage returned by Hamas on Friday. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) called him Eliyahu Margalitwhose body was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz after he was killed on October 7, 2023.

Also as part of the deal, Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.

The bodies of 15 Palestinians were handed over from Israel through the Red Cross to officials in Gaza on Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry said, bringing the total number of bodies received to 135.

Separately on Saturday were 11 members of a Palestinian family killed by an Israeli tank shellaccording to the Hamas-run Ministry of Civil Defense, it was the deadliest single incident involving Israeli soldiers in Gaza since the cease-fire began.

The Israeli military said soldiers fired at a “suspicious vehicle” that had crossed the so-called yellow line demarcating the area still occupied by Israeli forces in Gaza.

There are no physical markers on this line and it is unclear if the bus crossed it. The BBC asked the IDF for the coordinates of the incident.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 attack in which Hamas-led gunmen killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage.

At least 68,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

In September, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel categorically rejected the report as “distorted and false”.