IDF receives two bodies from Red Cross; Hamas claims to have returned all dead hostages it could find

[question everything]

Source: TimesofIsrael

Hamas transferred two caskets containing the apparent remains of two dead hostages on Wednesday night, as it claimed to have recovered the bodies of all the deceased captives “that it was able to reach.”

The caskets were collected by the Red Cross from Hamas in Gaza City, then transferred to IDF troops who brought them out of the Gaza Strip. Once in Israel, the caskets were inspected by the army, then draped in Israeli flags and honored in a brief ceremony led by a military rabbi.

Hamas did not identity the remains, similar to a day earlier, when one of the four bodies purported to be of dead hostages that it handed over was determined to be of a Palestinian. If the two bodies are confirmed to be hostages, Hamas would still be holding the remains of 19 dead hostages in Gaza.

But Hamas’s military wing claimed in the lead-up to the handover that it met its obligations under the US-backed ceasefire deal by returning all living hostages to Israel, and the bodies of all the dead captives “that it was able to reach.” “What remains of the bodies of hostages [that were not returned] — requires great effort and special equipment to search for, and we are making great efforts to resolve this issue,” it said.


Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-receives-two-bodies-from-red-cross-hamas-claims-to-have-returned-all-dead-hostages-it-could-find/