JERUSALEM: The Red Cross received the remains of two more Hamas hostages on Wednesday, hours after the Israeli military said that one of the bodies previously turned over was not that of a hostage. The confusion added to tensions over the fragile truce that has paused the two-year war.
The Israeli military said the International Committee of the Red Cross received the remains, which were to be transferred to Israeli forces in Gaza.
Earlier Wednesday, military officials said one of the bodies previously handed over by Hamas was not that of a hostage who was held in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry said it received 45 more bodies of Palestinians from Israel, another step in implementation of the ceasefire agreement. That brings to 90 the total number of bodies returned to Gaza for burial. The forensics team examining the remains said they showed signs of mistreatment.
As part of the deal, four bodies of hostages were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday, following four on Monday that were returned hours after the last 20 living hostages were released from Gaza. In all, Israel has been awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 hostages.
The Israeli military said forensic testing showed that “the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages.” There was no immediate word on whose body it was.
In exchange for the release of the hostages, Israel freed around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees Monday.
Unidentified bodies returned to Gaza show signs of abuse
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. It is unclear whether the remains belong to Palestinians who died in Israeli custody or were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops. Throughout the war, Israel’s military has exhumed bodies as part of its search for the remains of hostages.
As forensic teams examined the first remains returned, the Health Ministry on Wednesday released images of 32 unidentified bodies to help families recognize missing relatives.
Many appeared decomposed or burned. Some were missing limbs or teeth, while others were coated in sand and dust. Health officials have said Israeli restrictions on allowing DNA testing equipment into Gaza have often forced morgues to rely on physical features and clothing for identification.
The forensics team that received the bodies said some arrived still shackled or bearing signs of physical abuse.
Sameh Hamad, a member of a commission tasked with receiving the bodies at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, said some arrived with their hands and legs cuffed.
“There are signs of torture and executions,” he told The Associated Press.
The bodies, he said, belonged to men ages 25 to 70. Most had bands on their necks, including one that had a rope around the neck.
Most of the bodies wore civilian clothing, but some were in uniforms, suggesting they were militants.
Hamad said the Red Cross provided names for only three of the dead, leaving many families uncertain of their relatives’ fate. The fighting has killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in Gaza. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross and Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Rasmiya Qudeih, 52, waited outside Nasser Hospital, hoping her son would be among the 45 bodies transferred from Israel on Wednesday.
He vanished on Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas-led attack that triggered the war. She was told he was killed by an Israeli strike.
“God willing, he will be with the bodies,” she said.
Netanyahu says Israel won’t compromise
The ceasefire plan introduced by US President Donald Trump had called for all hostages — living and dead — to be handed over by a deadline that expired Monday. But under the deal, if that didn’t happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel “will not compromise” and demanded that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal about the return of hostages’ bodies.
Trump, in an interview with CNN, warned that Israel could resume the war if he feels Hamas isn’t upholding its end of the agreement.
“Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word,” Trump said.
Hamas’ armed wing said in a statement Wednesday that the group honored the ceasefire’s terms and handed over the remains of the hostages it had access to.
Hamas and the Red Cross have said that recovering the remains of dead hostages was a challenge because of Gaza’s vast destruction, and Hamas has told mediators that some are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.
Two hostages whose bodies were released from Gaza were being buried Wednesday.
Red Cross has received remains of 2 more Hamas hostages to be given to Israel
https://arab.news/z3v4x
Red Cross has received remains of 2 more Hamas hostages to be given to Israel
- The Israeli military said the International Committee of the Red Cross received the remains, which were to be transferred to Israeli forces in Gaza
- The Gaza Health Ministry said it received 45 more bodies of Palestinians from Israel
Refugees, migrants in Lebanon find rare sanctuary from Israeli strikes in Beirut church
- Beirut church offers safe haven for displaced migrants, refugees
- Many refugees lived through 2024 war, but are now more vulnerable
BEIRUT: When Israeli strikes began pummelling Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Monday, Sudanese refugee Ridina Muhammad and her family had no choice but to flee home on foot, eventually reaching the only shelter that would accept them: a church.
Eight months pregnant, Muhammad, 32, walked with her husband and three children for hours in the dark streets until they found a car to take them to the St. Joseph Tabaris Parish, which has opened its doors to refugees and migrants.
They are among 300,000 people displaced across Lebanon this week by heavy Israeli strikes, launched in response to a rocket and drone attackinto Israel by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Just 100,000 of the displaced are in government shelters. Others are staying with relatives or sleeping in the streets. But migrants and refugees say government shelters were never an option for them, saying they were turned away during the last war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Muhammad’s oldest daughter, now seven, stopped speaking after the 2024 war.
This time, they are even more vulnerable: their home was destroyed in this week’s strikes and Muhammad is due to give birth at the end of the month.
“I don’t know if there’s a doctor or not, but I’m really scared about it because I haven’t prepared any clothes for the baby, nor arranged a hospital, and I don’t know where to go,” she told Reuters as her younger daughter leaned against her pregnant belly.
Muhammad said she was registered with the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) but had not received support.
“Us, as refugees, why did we register with the UN, if they are not helping us in the most difficult times?” she said.
Dalal Harb, a spokesperson for UNHCR Lebanon, said the agency had mobilized but reaching everyone immediately was extremely challenging given the scale and speed of displacement. The UNHCR operation in Lebanon is currently only around 14 percent funded, she said.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), which helped the church host displaced in 2024, is doing so again.
Michael Petro, JRS’ Emergency Shelter Director, said the church was full within the first day of strikes, with 140 people from South Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and other countries sheltering there.
“There are many, many more people coming than there were in 2024, and we have fewer and fewer places to put them,” he said.
Petro said he was told weeks ago that government shelters would be open to migrants if war erupted.
But when the strikes began and even Lebanese struggled to find shelter, the policy seemed to change, he said.
“We’re hearing from hotlines up to government officials and ministries that migrants are not welcome,” Petro said.
Lebanon’s Minister for Social Affairs Haneen Sayyed did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Sayyed said Beirut shelters were full.
When Israeli strikes began, Othman Yahyeh Dawood, a 41-year-old Sudanese man, put his two young sons on his motorcycle.
They drove 75 kilometers (46 miles) from the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh to St. Joseph’s, where they had sheltered in 2024.
“I know the area is safe and there are people who will welcome us,” he said.
“We don’t know where to go; there’s war there (in the south), war here (in Beirut), war in Sudan, and nowhere else to go,” he said.
