Israel has handed over the bodies of 30 Palestinians, Red Cross and hospital officials in the Gaza Strip said today, a day after the Palestinian Hamas group returned the remains of two hostages to Israeli authorities.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, confirmed that it had received 30 bodies, whose identification is difficult without access to DNA material.
The exchange of remains is the latest sign of progress in implementing a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, despite this week's Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 100 people, including an Israeli soldier.
The number of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel rose to 225 today, but families have identified only 75, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
It is not known whether the Palestinians whose bodies were returned were killed in Israel on October 7, 2023, during the Palestinian attack that triggered the war, or died in Israeli prisons as prisoners, or were found dead by Israeli soldiers in Gaza during the war.
The Gaza Strip's Health Ministry announced on IX that the returned bodies had been "torn apart and exhumed," that "the flesh had been melted and the faces destroyed by fire," and that "only bones and teeth remained."
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