Israel receives two bodies Hamas says are dead hostages

Israel has received two bodies that Hamas says are two more deceased hostages who had been held in Gaza.

The Israeli military said two coffins were handed over to troops in the Palestinian territory by the Red Cross, which had earlier received them from Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the coffins – which were escorted by the military – had crossed into Israel and will be taken to be formally identified in Tel Aviv.

Confirmation of their identies would mean that Hamas has transferred 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal earlier this month. All 20 living hostages were released shortly after the agreement was reached.

Hamas has handed over a Palestinian body in a previous hostage transfers, which it said was accidental due to difficulties locating the bodies.

The IDF urged the Israeli public on Tuesday evening to “act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification, which will first be provided to the families of the hostages”.

It also stressed that “Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages”.

Israeli officials said the families of the hostages will be notified once the bodies are identified.

There has been outrage in Israel that Hamas has not yet returned all the deceased hostages.

The Palestinian group says it is trying to do this but that it faces difficulty finding bodies under rubble of buildings bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.

Under the ceasefire and hostage release agreement, Israel has freed 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza, and returned 15 bodies of Palestinians for every Israeli hostage’s remains.

The first phase of the agreement has also seen an increase of aid into Gaza, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a halt in fighting – though deadly violence flared up over the weekend as both sides accused one another of breaching the terms of the deal.

The IDF launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage.

More than 68,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.