Israel returns 15 bodies to Gaza after hostage remains identified

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday as part of the exchange deal under the U.S.-brokered cease-fire.

It came after Israel announced that a body handed over by Gaza militants on Tuesday was that of Dror Or, one of the last three deceased hostages held in the Palestinian territory.

Under the cease-fire deal, which came into effect on Oct. 10, Israel is required to hand over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.

"The Health Ministry announces the receipt of 15 bodies of martyrs released today by the Israeli occupation via the International Committee of the Red Cross, bringing the total number of bodies received to 345," the Gaza ministry said in a statement.

The ICRC facilitates the transfers in its role as a neutral intermediary.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement that the handover "reflects Hamas's steadfast commitment to fully complete the exchange process and its ongoing efforts to finaliez it despite significant difficulties".

AFP witnessed the 15 bodies, in white body bags, being carried inside the morgue at Gaza's Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Mahmud Ashour, spokesman for the forensic evidence department in Hamas-run Gaza, told AFP that of the 345 bodies received via the ICRC, 99 have now been identified.

"We always receive these bodies in a state of decomposition and with facial features missing," he said.

"We also see signs of injuries on the bodies, and we do not know the true circumstances" that led to their deaths, he added.

"The families face extreme difficulty in identifying the bodies."

'Agonising uncertainty'

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that Or's family had been informed that his remains had been identified.

"The government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Or family and all the families of the fallen hostages," it said.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

Militants took 251 people hostage during the attack.

Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 69,785 people, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the U.N. considers reliable.

Or, 48, was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on his home in kibbutz Beeri and his body taken to Gaza. He was head chef and cheesemaker in the kibbutz dairy.

"Dror's return provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt for over two years," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

"We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home."

The last two hostages' bodies still in Gaza are those of Israeli Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.

At the start of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, militants were holding 20 living hostages and 28 bodies of deceased captives.

Hamas has since released all the living hostages and returned the remains of 26 dead hostages.

In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.