Hamas has handed over the stays of one other deceased hostage, the Israel Protection Forces mentioned.
The IDF confirmed in a social media put up early Saturday native time that the “coffin of the deceased hostage” was introduced into Israel and was being taken to Israel’s Nationwide Institute for Forensic Drugs, the place the physique can be recognized.
The Related Press reported on Saturday morning that the stays had been recognized as these of Eliyahu Margalit, 76, citing Israel’s Prime Minister’s Workplace. Margalit had been kidnapped from the horse stables the place he labored in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
In a earlier social media put up late Friday night time, the IDF mentioned that the Pink Cross was “on its strategy to the assembly level within the southern Gaza Strip, the place a coffin of a deceased hostage will likely be transferred into its custody.”
Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, had mentioned earlier Friday that it was handing over the physique.
The announcement comes after Hamas mentioned Wednesday it had handed over all of the Israeli hostage stays in Gaza that it had been capable of get well, and in depth efforts and particular gear can be required to search out the remaining our bodies.
The Gaza peace plan referred to as for Hamas to hand over all remaining hostages — 20 dwelling and 28 useless — by Monday, Oct. 13. For the reason that plan took impact final week, Hamas has been accused of delaying handing over the stays of Israeli hostages nonetheless believed to be within the Palestinian territory.
Hamas has handed over the stays of at the least eight confirmed hostages for the reason that peace deal took impact, together with Margalit’s stays.
Chris McGrath / Getty Photographs
Whereas Hamas returned the 20 dwelling hostages by the Monday deadline, the stays of solely 4 deceased Israeli captives had been handed over. Hamas transferred an extra 4 our bodies on Tuesday, however the IDF mentioned one among them was not a hostage. The stays of at the least 20 hostages are nonetheless unaccounted for.
A senior U.S. adviser advised reporters on a name Wednesday that “no one is getting left behind,” noting they imagine there are nonetheless many our bodies buried beneath the mountains of rubble throughout Gaza. Senior U.S. advisers mentioned the extent of destruction additionally makes it troublesome to maneuver round within the Palestinian territory.
“It will have been nearly unattainable for Hamas to mobilize, even when they knew the place all of the 28 our bodies had been, to mobilize and get them dwelling,” one adviser mentioned Wednesday.
Strikingly, the adviser mentioned the U.S. is sharing Israeli intelligence with Hamas to help find hostage stays. The adviser additionally mentioned Turkey has supplied to assist seek for and retrieve stays by sending in professional groups with expertise rescuing individuals from the frequent earthquakes within the nation.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz mentioned Thursday that American personnel can be a part of the hassle to get well the stays of the hostages which have but to be turned over.
Throughout negotiations that led to the peace deal, Hamas representatives mentioned they didn’t know the situation of all of the stays of deceased hostages, in line with Israeli media reviews. President Trump additionally mentioned in Egypt on Monday that not all the our bodies of the deceased hostages had been discovered, including that unidentified events had been nonetheless “understanding” the best way to find an unspecified variety of stays.
The senior U.S. advisers who spoke to reporters on Wednesday urged endurance and mentioned they don’t seem to be at a degree the place they really feel that the settlement has been violated, citing the difficulties in retrieving the stays nonetheless in Gaza.
Each the Israeli Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, the group that represents the hostage households, and Israeli Protection Minister Israel Katz have beforehand mentioned your entire peace deal ought to be shelved till all the hostages’ stays are returned by Hamas.
The Hamas-run Gaza Well being Ministry mentioned Saturday morning that 15 Palestinian our bodies had been returned to Gaza. Israel has launched practically 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as a part of the ceasefire settlement in alternate for the return of the hostages. The launched Palestinians embrace 250 people who find themselves serving life sentences and about 1,700 others who’ve been detained and held with out expenses since Hamas’ terror assault on Oct. 7, 2023.
Additionally, Gaza’s Hamas-run civil protection company mentioned that 9 individuals had been killed in Gaza when Israeli forces fired on a bus in Gaza Metropolis’s Zeitun neighborhood. Mahmud Bassal, an company spokesperson, advised the AFP the 9 had been victims of a household who had been “making an attempt to verify on their dwelling.”
The Israeli navy advised the AFP the car had crossed the “yellow line,” the boundary behind which Israeli troops are stationed beneath the ceasefire settlement. The navy mentioned troops had fired warning photographs, however that the car “continued to strategy the troops in a manner that triggered an imminent menace to them.”
