{"id":81662,"date":"2025-10-17T22:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/81662\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T22:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:58:08","slug":"israel-received-coffin-of-missing-hostage-handed-over-to-red-cross-prime-ministers-office-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/81662\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel received coffin of missing hostage handed over to Red Cross, prime minister’s office says"},"content":{"rendered":"

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 Israel received the remains of another hostage from Gaza<\/a> on Friday, the prime minister\u2019s office said, a handover from Hamas<\/a> as the militant group worked to shore up a ceasefire by using bulldozers in a search for bodies under the rubble in the war-scarred enclave.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military and security forces received the coffin from the International Committee of the Red Cross inside the Gaza Strip, and it was to be sent to the Ministry of Health\u2019s National Center for Forensic Medicine in Israel.<\/p>\n

Israeli authorities said the family of the deceased would be notified first after a formal identification process.<\/p>\n

The handover came after Hamas\u2019 military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, said the remains were that of an \u201coccupation prisoner,\u201d suggesting that they belonged to an Israeli rather than one of the hostages of several other nationalities also taken in Gaza. <\/p>\n

The handover of hostages remains, called for under the ceasefire agreement, has been among the key sticking points \u2014 along with aid deliveries, the opening of border crossings into Gaza and hopes for reconstruction \u2014 in a process backed by much of the international community to help end two years of devastating war in Gaza. <\/p>\n

A warning from President Trump<\/p>\n

Hamas has said it is committed to the terms of the ceasefire deal, including the handover of bodies. This week, Hamas has handed over to Israel the remains of nine hostages, along with a 10th body that Israel said wasn\u2019t that of a hostage.<\/p>\n

The effort to find bodies followed a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> that he would green-light Israel to resume the war if Hamas doesn\u2019t live up to its end of the deal and return all hostages\u2019 bodies, totaling 28.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military and Shin Bet security service, which received the remains, insisted that \u201cHamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas has said some hostages\u2019 remains were in tunnels or buildings that were destroyed by Israel, and insisted heavy machinery is required to dig through rubble to retrieve them. The group blamed Israel for the delay, saying it had not allowed any new bulldozers into the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

Most heavy equipment in Gaza was destroyed during the war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, leaving only a limited amount as Palestinians try to clear massive amounts of rubble across the territory.<\/p>\n

On Friday, two bulldozers plowed up pits in the earth as Hamas searched for hostages\u2019 remains in Hamad City, a complex of apartment towers in the city of Khan Younis. Israeli forces repeatedly bombarded the towers during the war, toppling some, and troops conducted a weeklong raid there in March 2024, fighting militants.<\/p>\n

While much focus has been on the handover of hostages\u2019 remains, Hamas has urged mediators to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, expedite the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and start reconstruction. <\/p>\n

It also said work should \u201cstart immediately\u201d to set up a committee of Palestinian independents who will run Gaza and called for Israeli troops to continue pulling back from agreed-upon areas. <\/p>\n

The ceasefire plan<\/a> introduced by Trump<\/a> had called for all hostages \u2014 living and dead \u2014 to be handed over by a deadline that expired Monday. But under the deal, if that didn\u2019t happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> has said that Israel \u201cwill not compromise\u201d and demanded that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal about the return of hostages\u2019 bodies.<\/p>\n

Obstacles to retrieving bodies<\/p>\n

Hamas has assured the U.S. through intermediaries that it\u2019s working to return dead hostages. The retrieval of bodies is hampered by the scope of the devastation and the presence of dangerous, unexploded ordnance. The militant group has also told mediators that some bodies are in areas controlled by Israeli troops. <\/p>\n

At a news conference with his German counterpart in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan<\/a> expressed concerns that Israel might use Hamas\u2019 \u201clack of equipment\u201d to recover bodies as a pretext to resume hostilities.<\/p>\n

Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages on Monday. In exchange, Israel freed around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners<\/a> and detainees.<\/p>\n

In Israel, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum \u2014 which groups many families of hostages \u2014 said they will continue holding weekly rallies until all remains are returned.<\/p>\n

Israel has also returned to Gaza the bodies of 90 Palestinians for burial. Israel is expected to turn over more bodies, though officials have not said how many are in its custody or how many will be returned. <\/p>\n

A Palestinian forensics team examining the remains said some of the bodies showed signs of mistreatment.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in the territory. Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross.<\/p>\n

France says international force for Gaza is in the pipeline <\/p>\n

France said it\u2019s working with Britain and the U.S. to propose a U.N. resolution in coming days that would provide a framework for an international force for Gaza.<\/p>\n

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said Thursday that Arab countries want a U.N. mandate for the force. <\/p>\n

Arab countries are expected to be among those contributing troops to the force, which will oversee Egyptian-trained Palestinian police.<\/p>\n

Confavreux said details on funding, equipment and which countries will participate still need to be worked out.<\/p>\n

Wait for a large infusion of aid into Gaza goes on<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the flow of aid remains constrained because of continued closures of crossings and restrictions on aid groups.<\/p>\n

The United Nations dashboard tracking movement of U.N.-coordinated aid trucks into Gaza on Friday showed 339 trucks have been offloaded for distribution since the ceasefire began a week ago. Under the agreement, some 600 humanitarian aid trucks would be allowed to enter Gaza daily.<\/p>\n

COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid in Gaza, reported 950 trucks \u2014 including commercial trucks and bilateral deliveries \u2014 crossing on Thursday and 716 on Wednesday, according to the U.N. office for the coordination of humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n

Tom Fletcher, who heads that office, said in a social media post that U.N. humanitarian teams are executing a 60-day plan to massively scale up aid. Still, he warned that the \u201cchallenges ahead are immense,\u201d and urged the opening of more crossings to allow more aid and workers into Gaza.<\/p>\n

Fletcher entered the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt and then drove to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where he visited the U.N. World Food Program\u2019s Castle Bakery, U.N. spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ceasefire has meant that the bakery can access fuel and flour, allowing it to produce up to 300,000 loaves of pita bread per day,\u201d Dujarric said.<\/p>\n

Since last Saturday, WFP has sent more than 280 trucks, weighing some 3,000 metric tons, into Gaza to support bakeries, nutrition programs and general food distributions, the food agency said.<\/p>\n

Nahed Sheheiber, the head of Gaza\u2019s private truckers\u2019 union, which organizes pickups of aid after Israeli inspection, says improved security in Gaza has helped prevent looting or gangs intercepting aid convoys \u2014 even if there has been no significant increase of supplies arriving since the ceasefire. He said only 70 trucks went in Thursday.<\/p>\n

Gaza\u2019s more than 2 million people are hoping the ceasefire will bring relief from the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel\u2019s campaign. Throughout the war, Israel restricted aid entry to Gaza, sometimes letting in only a trickle, and it completely barred food from entering for two months earlier this year to pressure Hamas to free hostages.<\/p>\n

Famine was declared in Gaza City, and the U.N. says it has verified more than 400 people who died of malnutrition-related causes, including more than 100 children.<\/p>\n

Israel says it let in enough food, accusing Hamas of stealing much of it. The U.N. and other aid agencies deny the claim.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 Israel received the remains of another hostage from Gaza on Friday, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[120,2035,49,54,9281,50,69,122,3163,51,1983,85,119,46,1984,61,2034,853,43,56772,7319,4497,121,126],"class_list":["post-81662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-ap-top-news","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-foreign-aid","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-general-news","tag-hakan-fidan","tag-hamas","tag-hostage-situations","tag-il","tag-international-agreements","tag-israel","tag-israel-government","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-mideast-wars","tag-national","tag-news","tag-pascal-confavreux","tag-religion","tag-united-nations","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}