DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (news agencies) — Israel received the remains of another hostage from Gaza on Friday, the prime minister’s office said, a handover from Hamas as the militant group worked to shore up a ceasefire by using bulldozers in a search for bodies under the rubble in the war-scarred enclave.
The Israeli military and security forces received the coffin from the International Committee of the Red Cross inside the Gaza Strip, and it was to be sent to the Ministry of Health’s National Center for Forensic Medicine in Israel.
Israeli authorities said the family of the deceased would be notified first after a formal identification process.
The handover came after Hamas’ military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, said the remains were that of an “occupation prisoner,” suggesting that they belonged to an Israeli rather than one of the hostages of several other nationalities also taken in Gaza.
The handover of hostages remains, called for under the ceasefire agreement, has been among the key sticking points — along with aid deliveries, the opening of border crossings into Gaza and hopes for reconstruction — in a process backed by much of the international community to help end two years of devastating war in Gaza.
Hamas has said it is committed to the terms of the ceasefire deal, including the handover of bodies. This week, Hamas has handed over to Israel the remains of nine hostages, along with a 10th body that Israel said wasn’t that of a hostage.
The effort to find bodies followed a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump that he would green-light Israel to resume the war if Hamas doesn’t live up to its end of the deal and return all hostages’ bodies, totaling 28.
The Israeli military and Shin Bet security service, which received the remains, insisted that “Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages.”
Hamas has said some hostages’ remains were in tunnels or buildings that were destroyed by Israel, and insisted heavy machinery is required to dig through rubble to retrieve them. The group blamed Israel for the delay, saying it had not allowed any new bulldozers into Gaza.
Most heavy equipment in the territory was destroyed during the war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, leaving only a limited amount as Palestinians try to clear massive amounts of rubble across Gaza.
On Friday, two bulldozers plowed up pits in the earth as Hamas searched for hostages’ remains in Hamad City, a complex of apartment towers in the city of Khan Younis. Israeli forces repeatedly bombarded the towers during the war, toppling some, and troops conducted a weeklong raid there in March 2024, fighting militants.
While much focus has been on the handover of hostages’ remains, Hamas has urged mediators to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, expedite the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and start reconstruction.
It also said work should “start immediately” to set up a committee of Palestinian independents who will run Gaza and called for Israeli troops to continue pulling back from agreed-upon areas.
The ceasefire plan introduced by Trump had called for all hostages — living and dead — to be handed over by a deadline that expired Monday. But under the deal, if that didn’t happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel “will not compromise” and demanded that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal about the return of hostages’ bodies.
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