The remains of three people handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross this week do not belong to any of the hostages, Israel said Saturday. This development marks the latest setback that could undermine the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

The handover came shortly after Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza on Friday, completing an exchange that followed militants earlier this week turning over the remains of two hostages. These exchanges had signaled progress in the fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The unidentified remains of the three individuals were returned late Friday to Israel, where they underwent examination overnight. At that time, a military official cautioned that Israeli intelligence suggested the remains were not those of any hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel—a raid that sparked the current war.

The Israeli official spoke anonymously, as they were not authorized to speak to the media. On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the remains did not belong to any hostages but did not provide further details.

Hamas’ armed wing subsequently issued a statement clarifying that it had offered to hand over samples of unidentified bodies on Friday, but claimed Israel refused to receive them and instead requested full remains for examination. “We handed the bodies over to stop the claims of Israel,” the statement said.

It remains unclear to whom the three returned remains belong.

Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect on October 10, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 17 hostages who had been held in Gaza for the past two years. However, the process of returning the bodies of the remaining 11 hostages—as stipulated in the truce agreement—has been slow, with militants releasing only one or two bodies every few days.

Meanwhile, the total number of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel since the ceasefire started now stands at 225. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, only 75 of those have been identified by their families. It is unclear whether these individuals were killed during the October 7 attack in Israel, died in Israeli custody as detainees, or were recovered from Gaza by Israeli troops during the conflict.

The fragile truce faced its most significant challenge earlier this week, when Israel conducted strikes across Gaza that killed more than 100 people. These strikes came in response to the killing of an Israeli soldier in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, as well as the incomplete return of hostages.
https://www.wptv.com/world/israel-at-war/latest-remains-returned-from-gaza-are-not-bodies-of-hostages-israel-says