Israel’s military has said that three bodies it received from Gaza via the Red Cross last night were not hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said that a forensic analysis revealed the bodies were not those of any of the 11 deceased hostages still to be released under a US-brokered ceasefire deal.
Last night an Israeli military source said the army had received three unidentified bodies from Gaza via the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), but it does not believe they belong to hostages.
“From our intel we don’t think they are hostages’ bodies, and we transferred them to the forensic research laboratory”, to confirm their identities, the source added.
Earlier yesterday, the ICRC said in a statement that its teams “tonight facilitated the transfer of three deceased to Israeli authorities”.
“This was done at the request of the parties, and with their agreement,” it added.
Hamas has so far returned the remains of 17 of the 28 deceased hostages that Hamas had agreed to hand over as part of a US-brokered truce deal with Israel, not including yesterday’s three bodies.
After the start of this month’s ceasefire, Hamas returned the 20 surviving captives still in its custody and began the process of returning the bodies of the dead hostages.
Israel accuses Hamas of reneging on the deal by not returning them quickly enough, but the Palestinian group says it will take time to locate remains buried in Gaza’s ruins.