The Red Cross said it facilitated on Tuesday the transfer of 15 Palestinian bodies from Israel to Gaza as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, taking the total handed over to 165.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today facilitated the transfer of deceased Palestinians to authorities in Gaza…. Local health authorities in Gaza have confirmed the number of deceased received today is 15,” the Red Cross said in a statement.
Under the Gaza ceasefire deal, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned. Israel confirmed that Hamas handed over the body of the 13th hostage on Monday.
Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Saturday, bringing the total number handed over to 135, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Relatives and friends of Israeli Staff Sgt. Three of the four bodies of Israeli hostages in Gaza returned by Hamas late on October 14 have been identified, according to their families, following forensic confirmation of their identities. Tamir, one of the three, was a soldier captured at age 18 from a military base on the border with Gaza.
Late on Friday, Hamas handed over the body of another Israeli hostage.
Since the ceasefire began, Hamas has handed over the bodies of nine Israelis and one Nepalese student.
The Gaza health ministry said that some of the bodies returned on Saturday bore signs of “abuse, beatings, handcuffing and blindfolding”.
Relatives and friends of Israeli Staff Sgt. Three of the four bodies of Israeli hostages in Gaza returned by Hamas late on October 14 have been identified, according to their families, following forensic confirmation of their identities. Tamir, one of the three, was a soldier captured at age 18 from a military base on the border with Gaza.
The ministry made similar claims regarding other bodies previously returned under the ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli military has said these claims were “Hamas’s false propaganda”.
“Furthermore, all the bodies returned so far are from combatants within the Gaza Strip,” it told AFP on Friday.
