Israel says body returned by Hamas not hostage

Israel has announced that one of the four bodies handed over by Hamas was not that of a missing hostage, complicating the agreement.

Following a threat to cut aid, the transfer of deceased hostages resumed, but not without issues. Meanwhile, a hospital in Gaza reported receiving 45 unidentified Palestinian bodies with cuffs still attached to their legs and arms.

The latest transfer of dead hostages held in Gaza on Tuesday night followed the Israeli government’s threat to cut the expected aid flow into the strip by half.

Grieving Israeli families were upset after only four of the missing 28 deceased hostages were released on Monday, the same day 20 Israelis who were still alive in Gaza returned home.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas “does not match any of the hostages,” following examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv. “Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages,” it said.

The ceasefire agreement requires Hamas to work hard to return the missing bodies. In exchange, Israel is to return the bodies of 360 Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, officials at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza said none of the 45 bodies they received from Israel had been identified. They added that the bodies arrived at the facility with their hands and legs cuffed.

“Some are blindfolded and there are signs of gunshot wounds in some cases, while others have been run over by tanks,” the hospital told CNN.

The Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons called on Israel to provide all available information on the bodies being handed over “including the names of the victims and details about the circumstances of their deaths.”

Speaking on Tuesday, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right security minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, despite having been convicted in 2007 of racist incitement and supporting groups on terrorism blacklists, said Hamas was “playing games” over the dead hostages.

He said: “Enough with the disgrace. Moments after opening the crossings to hundreds of trucks, Hamas very quickly returned to its known methods to lie, to cheat and to abuse families and the bodies. This Nazi terror understands only force and the only way to deal with it is to erase it from the face of the earth.”

Ben Gvir called on Netanyahu to issue “a clear ultimatum to Hamas: if you do not immediately return all the bodies of our fallen and you continue with these delays, we will immediately halt all aid supplies entering the [Gaza] Strip”.

Israel has repeatedly stopped aid from entering Gaza during the conflict, prompting accusations it has used starvation as a weapon of war. Humanitarian officials have repeatedly warned that assistance is desperately needed. Famine was declared in parts of Gaza in August.

The chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, said the military would “not rest until we return all [of the hostages]. This is our moral, national and Jewish duty.”

At a handover ceremony, he said: “In coordination with the political echelon, we will insist and stand firm on upholding all the agreements.”

Three of the bodies have been identified as the hostages Staff Sgt Tamir Nimrodi, 18, Uriel Baruch, 35, and Eitan Levy, 53.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that Nimrodi had been kidnapped alive on 7 October but “killed by IDF bombings in captivity”.

The body of Baruch, a father of two from Jerusalem, was taken from the Nova music festival, where he was shot dead near his car during the Hamas attack.

Levy, a taxi driver, was killed after dropping off a friend at the Be’eri kibbutz on the morning of the attack and his remains were taken into Gaza the same day.

Under the ceasefire deal, Israel has freed some doctors, nurses and paramedics seized during raids on hospitals in Gaza, but other medical figures remain missing.

According to the NGO Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), more than 100 remain in Israeli prisons, including Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, a hospital director, who became the face of the struggle to keep treating patients under Israeli siege and bombardment.

Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, has been imprisoned without charge by Israel for nearly 10 months.

HWW, which documents detentions from Gaza, said 55 medical workers including 31 doctors and nurses were on lists of freed detainees.

The group said at least 115 medical workers remained in custody, as well as the remains of four who died while in Israeli prisons, where rights groups and witnesses have reported frequent abuse.

(The GuardianUK)

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