The Israeli military yesterday said that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of a ceasefire deal is not that of a hostage who was held in Gaza.
Four bodies were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday following an earlier four on Monday — hours after the last 20 living hostages were released. In all, Israel has been awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 deceased hostages.
Israel, which on Monday released about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, is also handing over bodies of Palestinians under the deal.
Photo: AP
The military said that after the “examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages.”
There was no immediate word on whose body it was.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier yesterday said that Hamas must fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal — introduced by US President Donald Trump — about the return of the hostages’ bodies.
“We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts until we return the last deceased hostage, until the last one,” Netanyahu said.
The US-proposed ceasefire plan had called for all hostages — living and dead — to be handed over by a deadline that expired on Monday.
According to the deal, if that did not happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.
On Tuesday, Hamas tightened its grip on Gaza’s ruined cities, executing alleged collaborators and launching a crackdown.
Hamas published a video showing the street execution of eight suspects, branding them “collaborators and outlaws.”
The footage, apparently from Monday evening, emerged as armed clashes were under way between Hamas’ security units and armed Palestinian clans.
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