AFP via Getty ImagesIsrael has received, through the Red Cross, a coffin that Hamas says contains the body of another deceased hostage held in Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said the coffin would be taken from Gaza back to Israel, where DNA testing would be used to identify the remains.
If confirmed, Hamas will have returned 16 of the 28 Israeli or foreign hostages it was holding before the start of a ceasefire two weeks ago.
The latest handover came after the Israeli government said it had allowed a member of Hamas into territory in Gaza controlled by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to help Red Cross and Egyptian personnel search the remaining dead hostages.
Israel accuses Hamas of violating the ceasefire deal because it has not returned all of the hostages’ bodies.
The Palestinian group says it is committed to the deal brokered by the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, but that it needs help to find remains buried under the rubble left by two years of war.
“The Red Cross, the Egyptian technical team, and a Hamas person have been permitted to enter beyond the IDF’s Yellow Line position in Gaza under close IDF supervision,” government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told a briefing on Monday.
She also said the Egyptians would bring in more equipment, including “tractor-type vehicles”.
All 20 living Israeli hostages were released soon after the ceasefire took effect on 10 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel has also handed over the bodies of 195 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 13 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.
Eleven of the dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis, one is Tanzanian, and one is Thai.
“Hamas knows where they are located and there is no other option but for them to be released back home,” Ms Bedrosian said.
ReutersEarlier, the group representing the Israeli hostages’ families demanded that immediate action be taken to ensure Hamas handed over all the bodies. This includes delaying the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
“The families urge the government of Israel, the United States administration, and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfils all of its obligations,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
It came after Israeli media cited an Israeli security official as saying that the Trump administration wanted to move to the second phase even if not all the hostages were found.
On Saturday, Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement that the group was facing “challenges” because Israeli forces had “altered the terrain of Gaza”.
“Moreover, some of those who buried the bodies have been martyred or no longer remember where they buried them,” he added.
All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,500 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
