How many hostages’ remains has Hamas returned to Israel?
After the Israeli army announced that the Hamas movement had handed over the bodies of two prisoners to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials announced on Sunday that the body of Ronin Engel had been identified.
Engel was killed in Operation Storm al-Aqsa in the Kibbutz Nir Gaza area and was later transferred to the Gaza Strip. Now the Israeli army has notified his family that it has received the body.
Since October 10th (and since the ceasefire came into effect), Hamas has handed over the bodies of 12 Israeli prisoners who were killed in Operation Storm al-Aqsa or while in captivity.
Hamas handed over the bodies of 4 Israeli prisoners last Monday and 4 more on Tuesday, but it was later determined that one of the bodies did not belong to an Israeli prisoner.
After that, Hamas handed over 2 bodies to the Red Cross and the next day, another body.
Last evening (Saturday), the Red Cross also received 2 bodies from Hamas. So far, the Israeli regime has received 12 bodies out of a total of 28 bodies, and 16 bodies are still with Hamas.
According to this report, the Hamas movement announced that, given the devastation that has occurred, removing the bodies of Israeli prisoners is a complicated task.
Hamas has emphasized that it is committed to implementing the first phase of the Gaza agreement, but the Israeli regime is preventing the implementation of the agreement by closing the Rafah crossing.
In contrast, the Israeli regime says that until all the bodies are handed over, the bodies will not open the crossing, and Hamas is violating the agreement.
The Israeli regime handed over the bodies of 15 Palestinian martyrs on Saturday, bringing the total number of bodies that Hamas has received to 135.
According to the existing agreement, the Israeli regime must hand over the bodies of 15 Palestinian martyrs for every Israeli body.
On Thursday, October 17, the Hamas movement officially announced the achievement of an agreement to end the war in the Gaza Strip and exchange prisoners.
On Friday afternoon, October 18, the Israeli army officially announced the implementation of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and announced: According to the agreement, Israeli forces will remain stationed in certain areas of the Gaza Strip, and travel from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip will be allowed via Al-Rashid Street and Salahuddin Road.