Israel has returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza today, bringing the total number handed over to 135, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
It comes after the body of a deceased Israeli hostage, that Hamas returned overnight, was identified as 75-year-old Eliyahu Margalit.
The Israeli military “informed the family of the abductee Eliyahu Margalit … that (the body of) their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification has been completed”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
It added that “we will not compromise… and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen abductees, down to the last one”.
The remains of the hostage who died in captivity were transferred to Israeli security forces in Gaza via the Red Cross, and returned to Israel for identification at a medical analysis centre, the premier’s office said last night.
The Israeli military said today that the remains had been returned to Mr Margalit’s family.
Protesters standing with portraits of Israeli hostages including Eliyahu Margalit (left) in October 2024
Mr Margalit was killed at Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza, according to a military statement.
“Eliyahu, 75 years old at the time of his death … leaves behind a wife, three children, and grandchildren. His daughter, Nili Margalit, was also abducted and returned (under) the hostage release agreement in November 2023,” the statement said.
“Hamas is required to fulfil its part of the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the hostages to their families,” it added.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement last night that the militant group “continues to uphold its commitment to the ceasefire agreement … and it will continue working to complete the full prisoner exchange process”.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the Palestinian militant group has returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of 10 out of 28 known deceased ones.
Under the terms of the agreement Hamas was to hand over all of the hostages, dead and alive, before Monday morning.
Gaza civil defence says nine killed when Israeli forces fired at bus
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli forces killed nine members of a single Palestinian family when they fired on a bus yesterday, after the military confirmed it had targeted a vehicle that crossed the so-called “yellow line”.
“Civil defence crews were able to recover nine bodies following the Israeli occupation’s targeting of a bus carrying displaced persons east of the Zeitun neighbourhood yesterday,” Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said.
Mr Bassal said the victims were members of the Abu Shabaan family and were killed while “trying to check on their home” in the Zeitun neighbourhood.
The Israeli military said a vehicle had been identified crossing the yellow line, the boundary behind which Israeli troops are stationed under the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
“The troops fired warning shots toward the suspicious vehicle, but the vehicle continued to approach the troops in a way that caused an imminent threat to them,” the military said in a statement.
“The troops opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement.”
The ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas is now in its second week, but several incidents have been reported since it began, with the military saying its troops fired at individuals who approached or crossed the yellow line.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza in search of their homes since the ceasefire began, often struggling to find them amid the vast devastation left by more than two years of war.
Several Gazans who spoke to AFP said they were unable to locate their houses – or even familiar landmarks – in neighbourhoods now buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings and debris.