Israel prepares to return bodies of Palestinians to Gaza

Israel is scheduled to release the bodies of Palestinian martyrs to Gaza today under the agreement, at a rate of 15 bodies for each Israeli captive’s body, with the Red Cross to transport the remains.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel has not received any information that Hamas intends to hand over more bodies of Israeli captives today (Tuesday), after it delivered only four coffins out of 28 to the Red Cross yesterday.

Israel says this move by Hamas is a violation of the agreement between Israel and the movement, which required it to return all the bodies of the abductees in its possession by 12:00 noon yesterday. In Israel, officials were surprised that Hamas did not return at least a large portion of them by the deadline.

The Red Cross said today that transporting the bodies of Israeli hostages and Gaza residents will take time, adding that this represents a “huge challenge” given the difficulty of locating deceased hostages amid Gaza’s rubble.

Christian Cardon, a Red Cross spokesman, said: “This challenge is even greater than that of the living hostages being released.”

He added that the process could take days or weeks, and that there may be dead hostages who are never found.