Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Friday that Israel has found the coffin of a missing hostage handed over from Hamas to the Red Cross.
The Israeli military and security forces received the coffin inside the Gaza Strip, and it was to be transferred to the National Forensic Medicine Center of Israel and the Ministry of Health. After the formal identification process, the family will be informed.
After this the handover took place HamasThe US’s military branch said it would hand over the body of the hostage taken Friday to the international committee red cross (ICRC).
The Qassam Brigades statement said the remains were those of a “captured prisoner”, an allusion to an Israeli hostage.
The Red Cross found the remains of another hostage to be returned to Israel from Gaza on Friday, an Israeli military official said, as Hamas worked to strengthen a tenuous ceasefire by using bulldozers to help search for bodies trapped under debris.
The coffin of a dead hostage was being taken to Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, the army said. The delivery came after Hamas’ military wing said it would hand over the bodies of hostages taken out during the day to the ICRC.
The Qassam Brigades, as the armed wing is known, said the remains were those of a “captured prisoner”, suggesting they were those of an Israeli rather than one of the many hostages of other nationalities taken in Gaza.
The Israeli military and Shin Bet security service said that official identification of the remains would first be provided to the families, before: “Hamas must maintain the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all deceased hostages.”
Hamas has said it remains committed to the terms of the ceasefire agreement, including handing over the bodies. This week, Hamas handed over the remains of nine hostages to Israel, as well as the body of a 10th, which Israel said was not the hostage’s body.
The effort to find the bodies comes after US President Donald Trump warned that he would give Israel the green light to resume the war if Hamas does not live up to its end of the agreement and return the bodies of all the hostages, whose total number is 28.
In a statement earlier on Friday, Hamas said the remains of some hostages were in tunnels or buildings that were later destroyed by Israel, and removing them required heavy machinery to dig through the debris. It blamed Israel for the delay and said it had not allowed any new bulldozers into the Gaza Strip.
heaviest equipment in Gaza It was destroyed during the war, with only a limited amount remaining as Palestinians attempted to clear the massive amounts of debris throughout the area.
On Friday, two bulldozers dug holes in the ground searching for the remains of hostages in the city of Hamad, a complex of apartment towers in the city of Khan Younis. Israeli forces repeatedly bombed the towers during the war, knocking out some, and soldiers conducted a week-long raid there in March 2024 while fighting terrorists.
Hamas urged mediators to increase the flow of aid to Gaza, accelerate the opening of the Rafah border with Egypt, and begin reconstruction. It also called for “immediate commencement” on the establishment of a Committee of Palestinian Free People that would run the Gaza Strip and continue to withdraw Israeli troops from the agreed areas.
The ceasefire plan introduced by Trump called for the handing over of all hostages – living and dead – by a deadline set to expire on Monday. But under the agreement, if that did not happen, Hamas was to share information about the dead hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel “will not compromise” and demanded that Hamas meet the requirements set out in the ceasefire agreement regarding the return of hostages’ bodies.
Obstacles in retrieving bodies
Hamas has assured the US through mediators that it is working to return the dead hostages. US officials say the recovery of bodies is being hampered by the scope of the destruction as well as the presence of dangerous, unexploded ordnance.
The militant group also told mediators that some bodies were in areas controlled by Israeli troops.
At a press conference with his German counterpart in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan expressed concern that Israel could use Hamas’s “lack of equipment” to recover bodies as a pretext for resuming hostilities.
Hamas released all 20 surviving Israeli hostages on Monday. In return, Israel freed approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
In Israel, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum – which groups many of the families of the hostages – said it would continue to hold weekly rallies until all remains are returned.
Israel has also returned the bodies of 90 Palestinians to Gaza for burial. Israel is expected to hand over more bodies, although officials have not said how many are in its custody or how many will be returned.
The Palestinian forensic team examining the remains said some of the bodies showed signs of abuse.
Nearly 68,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s campaign in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in the territory. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are generally considered reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross.
In the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, terrorists killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage.
France says international troops in pipeline for Gaza
France said it was working with Britain and the US on a UN resolution in the coming days that would provide a framework for an international force for Gaza.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confaveraux told a news conference on Thursday that Arab countries want a UN mandate for the force. Arab countries are expected to be among those contributing to the force, which will oversee Egyptian-trained Palestinian police.
Confaverex said work still needed to be done on funding, equipment and which countries would participate.
Gaza continues to wait for massive amounts of aid to be delivered
The UN says aid flows remain disrupted due to the continued closure of crossings and restrictions on aid groups.
A UN dashboard tracking the movement of UN-coordinated aid trucks in Gaza shows 339 trucks have been unloaded for distribution since the ceasefire began a week ago. Under the ceasefire agreement, 600 humanitarian aid trucks per day will be allowed to enter Gaza.
The crossings were closed on Monday and Tuesday due to hostage and prisoner exchanges and Jewish holidays.
COGAT, the Israeli defense agency that oversees aid in Gaza, reported crossing 950 trucks on Thursday – including commercial trucks and bilateral deliveries – and 716 trucks on Wednesday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.
Tom Fletcher, the head of that office, said in a social media post that U.N. humanitarian teams were implementing a 60-day plan to scale up aid. Nevertheless, he warned that “the challenges ahead are enormous”, and urged the opening of more crossings to allow more aid and workers into Gaza.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Fletcher entered the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt and then headed towards Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where he visited the UN World Food Programme’s Castle Bakery.
“The ceasefire means the bakery can get fuel and flour, allowing it to produce up to 300,000 pita breads per day,” Dujarric said.
Since last Saturday, WFP has sent more than 280 trucks weighing about 3,000 metric tons to Gaza to support bakeries, nutrition programs and general food distribution, the food agency said.
Nahed Scheiber, head of Gaza’s Private Truckers Union, which organizes the pickup of entry aid after Israeli inspections, says improved security in Gaza has helped prevent gangs from looting or intercepting aid convoys – even though there has been no significant increase in supplies since the ceasefire. He said that only 70 trucks arrived on Thursday.
Gaza’s more than 2 million people are hoping the ceasefire will bring relief from the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel’s campaign. Throughout the war, Israel restricted aid entry into Gaza, sometimes allowing only small amounts to enter, and completely barred food entry for two months earlier this year to pressure Hamas to free hostages.
Famine was declared in Gaza City, and the United Nations says it has confirmed more than 400 people have died from malnutrition-related causes, including more than 100 children.
Israel says it provided sufficient food and accuses Hamas of stealing most of it. The United Nations and other aid agencies deny this claim.
