Israel’s military has confirmed that the latest remains handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza and returned to Israel are those of a dead hostage.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the returned hostage is Eliyahu Margalit, 75, who was killed on 7 October and his body taken into Gaza from Nir Oz kibbutz.
Mr Margalit, who was known to his family and friends as Churchill, is the 10th dead hostage to be returned from Gaza.
BBC Verify – Aid group suspends Gaza operations after ceasefire US plays down claims Hamas is violating ceasefire deal As part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, Israel freed 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
The Israeli military continues to operate in more than half of the Gaza Strip, under the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
Israel’s military has verified that the most recent remains returned to Israel after being given to the Red Cross in Gaza are those of a deceased hostage.
The 75-year-old hostage, Eliyahu Margalit, was killed on October 7 and his body was transported into Gaza from the Nir Oz kibbutz, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Mr. Margalit, who his family and friends called Churchill, is the tenth dead hostage to be brought home from Gaza. 18 more people’s remains have not yet been returned home.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, Israel has now received 135 Palestinian bodies, including the bodies of 15 people who were delivered to Gaza officials on Saturday through the Red Cross.
According to a statement from Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Mr. Margalit was “a cowboy at heart” who spent many years running a horse stable and cattle branch in Nir Oz.
One month after his daughter Nili, who was also kidnapped, was freed during a brief truce, Israel announced his death in December 2023.
Though the US has played down the idea that it amounts to a breach, Israel has been incensed that Hamas has not returned all of the bodies in accordance with the ceasefire agreement from last week.
Hamas must “uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the hostages,” the IDF emphasized once more on Friday night.
Because of Israeli strikes that have destroyed so many buildings and prevented heavy equipment and diggers from entering Gaza to look for the bodies of the hostages, Hamas has accused Israel of complicating the task.
The Gaza Strip “is now a wasteland,” according to UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who told the BBC News Channel that people are searching for their homes, many of which have been destroyed, and searching through the debris for bodies.
There is “a huge task ahead of us to stabilize the situation, to stop the starvation, to get the hospitals open, to get the kids back in school,” he continued, referring to the aid organizations.
Speaking from Gaza City, he stated, “We’ve started to do that and we’re having an impact already but being here on the ground, it’s an overwhelming task.”.
The BBC confirms that an aid organization halts operations in Gaza following a ceasefire.
The US downplays allegations that Hamas is breaking the ceasefire agreement.
Israel released 1,718 Palestinian detainees from Gaza and 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails as part of the ceasefire agreement mediated by the United States.
Following Hamas’s announcement that it could not recover all of the bodies, two top Trump advisors stated that plans were underway to proceed to the next stage of the ceasefire agreement.
The advisers informed reporters that the US government did not yet think that Hamas had breached the agreement by failing to recover additional remains and that the organization had shared information with interlocutors in good faith.
A leaked version of the agreement between Israel and Hamas that surfaced in Israeli media seemed to allow for the possibility that not all of the bodies would be immediately accessible, even though the full text has not been made public.
The ceasefire has reportedly resulted in the deaths of several Palestinians.
Nine bodies, all from the same family, were recovered by Gaza’s Civil Defense, which is run by Hamas, on Saturday. The IDF had targeted a bus in the northern Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Friday. It stated that a total of eleven people were killed.
According to the IDF, it fired “warning shots” at a “suspicious vehicle that was seen crossing the yellow line and approaching IDF troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip” on Friday.
The vehicle “continued to approach the troops in a way that caused an imminent threat to them,” according to the report, and “troops opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement.”.
Although it is unclear where the line is, the IDF has cautioned Palestinians against going into parts of Gaza that are still under its authority.
Despite the ceasefire agreement’s initial phase, the Israeli military is still active in over half of the Gaza Strip. It is anticipated that troops will withdraw even more during the subsequent phases of the ceasefire.
