Hamas announces the first handover of Israeli captives’ remains in over a week, amid growing pressure from the US and Arab mediators on the terror group to uphold the terms of the ceasefire deal.
By World Israel News Staff
The Hamas terror organization announced Thursday afternoon that it will return the remains of two slain Israeli captives to Israel later today.
In a brief message released by Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades said that the bodies of two captives would be handed over at 4:00 p.m. Thursday.
The message gave no details regarding the identities of the two captives, or when their remains were located.
“As part of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner-exchange deal, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the bodies of two Israeli captives at 4:00 p.m. Gaza time,” Hamas said.
If the handover is completed as scheduled, it will mark the first time in over a week that Hamas has returned the bodies of slain captives to Israel.
Hamas said earlier that it had planned on returning two bodies on Tuesday night, but ultimately canceled the transfer, citing Israeli reprisal strikes after Hamas terrorists killed a reservist IDF soldier in southern Gaza.
While Hamas was obligated under the terms of the ceasefire agreement to return all 48 hostages, living and dead, by October 13th, the bodies of 13 slain hostages remain in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this week, Hamas handed over human remains which it claimed belonged to one of the 13 captives still held in Gaza.
However, Israeli forensics teams later identified the remains as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, a 27-year-old man murdered at the Nova music festival massacre.
Most of Tzarfati’s body was recovered by the IDF in December 2023.
Israel condemned Hamas for presenting Tzarfati’s remains as belonging to one of the 13 remaining hostages, noting that Hamas had pulled the man’s remains out of a building, placed them in a hole dug by Hamas operatives in Gaza City, then retrieved the remains again in front of International Committee of the Red Cross workers.
The Red Cross issued a rare rebuke of Hamas over the incident.
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