The Hamas terror group handed over the apparent remains of two deceased hostages to the Red Cross on Thursday afternoon, with the bodies then transferred to Israeli authorities, who were working to confirm the identity.
It potentially marked the first time Hamas handed over bodies of hostages in nine days, as Israel insists that the terror group is dragging its feet on the requirement of the ceasefire that came into place on October 10.
On Monday night, Hamas handed over what it said were the bodies of one of the 13 slain hostages, who were still held in Gaza. It was later discovered by Israel to be the partial remains of a hostage who was recovered by Israeli troops in December 2023.
The agreement required Hamas to return all remaining 48 living and deceased hostages within 72 hours. While the group followed through in handing over all 20 living hostages, it only returned four of the 28 bodies still held in Gaza within the required timeframe. It has since returned another 11 bodies, not including Thursday’s, which have not yet been identified.
The terror group did not specify the identities of the hostages it said it handed over on Thursday.
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After collecting two caskets from Hamas in central Gaza, the Red Cross handed them over to IDF troops inside the Strip. The military inspected the caskets and draped them in Israeli flags. A small ceremony led by a military rabbi was then held.
The caskets were subsequently transferred to Israel, where police escorted them to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification, a process that officials have said may take up to two days.
If the bodies are confirmed to belong to hostages, it would mean that the remains of 11 dead hostages are still held in Gaza.
Israel has accused Hamas of multiple violations of the deal, and has charged that the terror group knows the location of the vast majority, or even all, of the remaining bodies of hostages, and is purposely stalling and staging fake discoveries of bodies.
Hamas terrorists carry a white bag believed to contain a body, retrieved from a tunnel during a search for the remains of hostages in Hamad City, Khan Younis, southern Gaza, October 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Hamas on Tuesday claimed to have “retrieved” the bodies of two hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza and in the Strip’s center, whom they named. Israeli media outlets generally refrain from publishing the names until the families of the hostages have been notified.
Initially, Hamas said it planned to hand over one body on Tuesday at 8 p.m., but later said it was postponing the transfer due to Israel’s own “violations” of the ceasefire.
Israel had conducted a large wave of strikes in Gaza on Tuesday night after terror operatives killed a soldier in Rafah earlier in the day, and after footage emerged of Monday’s staged recovery of the remains of Ofir Tzarfati, whose body had been recovered by the IDF in late 2023.
Gaza health authorities reported more than 100 dead in the strikes.
Israel announced Wednesday morning that the ceasefire had been restored.
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