Gaza’s Health Ministry said it received 45 additional bodies of Palestinians from Israel, another step in implementation of the agreement.
It was unclear whether the deceased had died in Israeli custody or were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops while searching for hostages.
Four bodies of hostages had been handed over by Hamas on Tuesday, following four on Monday — hours after the last 20 living hostages were released from Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal — introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump — about the return of the hostages’ bodies.
Earlier this year during a previous ceasefire, the group said it handed over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Tensions over the tenuous ceasefire agreement in the two-year conflict increased on Wednesday when the Israeli military revealed that one of the bodies turned over by Hamas the day before as part of the ceasefire agreement is not that of a hostage who was detained in Gaza.
As part of the agreement’s implementation, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that it had received 45 more Palestinian bodies from Israel. Ninety Palestinians’ bodies have now been moved. It was unclear if Israeli troops had taken the deceased from Gaza during their hostage-hunting efforts or if they had died in Israeli custody.
A few hours after the final 20 surviving hostages were freed from Gaza, Hamas turned over four more hostage bodies on Tuesday. Israel has been anticipating the return of the bodies of twenty-eight hostages in total.
Israel on Monday freed about 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners.
According to Israel’s military, the fourth body that Hamas turned over to Israel did not match any of the hostages following “examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.”. Nobody knew right away whose body it was.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Hamas adhere to the conditions outlined in the ceasefire agreement, which was proposed by the U.S. S. . President Donald Trump— regarding the return of the bodies of the hostages.
Until the final hostage is returned, Netanyahu declared, “We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts.”.
difficulties with returning bodies.
The ceasefire plan stipulated that all hostages, both alive and dead, had to be turned over by Monday. If that didn’t occur, however, Hamas was supposed to give information about hostages who had died and work to turn them over as quickly as possible.
There have been previous instances where Hamas has sent the wrong body back to Israel. At a ceasefire earlier this year, the group claimed to have turned over Shiri Bibas’s and her two sons’ bodies. Tests revealed that one of the bodies returned was a Palestinian woman, which caused Israelis even more horror. A day later, Bibas’ body was given back.
Because of Gaza’s extensive destruction, recovering the remains of dead hostages has proven difficult, according to Hamas and the Red Cross. Hamas has informed mediators that some of the hostages are in areas under Israeli military control.
Speaking on the Telegram messaging app, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Kassem stated that the organization was working to return the hostages’ bodies in accordance with the agreement.
In addition, Kassem charged that Israel had broken the agreement by carrying out shootings in Rafah in the south and Gaza City in the east on Tuesday.
Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, stated that the military is using the deployment lines where troops withdrew as agreed upon and issued a warning that anyone approaching the line will be targeted, as was the case with multiple militants on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, two hostages whose bodies had been freed from Gaza were being buried.
Gaza desperately needs aid.
Due to a Jewish holiday on Tuesday and the exchange on Monday, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza had been suspended.
On Wednesday, 400 trucks loaded with food, fuel, and medical supplies were headed for Gaza, according to the Egyptian Red Crescent.
Concerned about the slow release of hostage bodies, the Israeli defense agency in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT, informed aid agencies on Tuesday that it would only permit half of the 600 aid trucks per day that were required by the agreement to enter Gaza.
At first, it was unclear if Israel was actually carrying out the threat. Regarding how many trucks are anticipated to enter Gaza on Wednesday, COGAT declined to comment.
“We have maintained that denying civilians aid is not a negotiating chip throughout this crisis,” U. No. said in a statement by humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.
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