Gaza, Oct 16: Gaza’s Health Ministry says it has received 45 additional bodies of Palestinians from Israel, another step toward implementing a fragile ceasefire.It is unclear whether the deceased had died in Israeli custody or were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops.
Throughout the war, Israel’s military has exhumed bodies as part of its search for the remains of hostages.
Officials at Nasser Hospital, along with an Associated Press journalist at the scene, confirmed the arrival of three trucks carrying the remains.
The bodies of 90 Palestinians have now been transferred.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of the ceasefire deal is not that of a hostage who was held in Gaza, adding to tensions over the fragile truce in the two-year war.
Four bodies were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday to ease pressure on the ceasefire, 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 released around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Monday, is also handing over bodies of Palestinians under the deal, a step awaited by many families in Gaza whose relatives went missing during the war.
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 demanded earlier Wednesday that Hamas 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 entrance of humanitarian aid to Gaza was paused for the past two days due to the prisoner and hostage exchange on Monday and a Jewish holiday Tuesday.
The Egyptian Red Crescent said 400 trucks carrying food, fuel, and medical supplies were bound for the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, while Israel and Hamas argue over the slow return of the bodies of deceased hostages.
The Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT, notified humanitarian organisations on Tuesday that it would allow into Gaza only half of the 600 daily aid trucks called for under the deal.
It was not immediately clear whether it was following through on the threat. COGAT declined to comment on the number of trucks expected to enter Gaza on Wednesday.
On Monday, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 living hostages in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of some 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire’s first phase.