TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Israel confirmed more bodies Wednesday Hostages handed over to Hamas It was rescheduled a day earlier to ease pressure on the fragile ceasefire. war with israel. The handover took place after the Israelites Military authorities warned of cuts in aid supplies The remains were returned to Gaza after the extremist group did not return them as agreed.
Three of the four bodies handed over Tuesday night were identified as Israeli hostages, but the identity of the fourth remains in question.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on Hamas to meet the requirements set out in the ceasefire agreement introduced by the US president. donald trump –Regarding the return of the bodies of the hostages.
“We will not compromise on this and we will not stop working until the last dead hostage is returned, until the last person left.”
US proposal ceasefire plan called for all hostages, living and dead, to be handed over by a deadline that expires on Monday. But under the agreement, if that didn’t happen, Hamas was supposed to share information about the dead hostages and try to hand them all over as soon as possible.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem said on the messaging app Telegram on Wednesday that Hamas was working to return the bodies of the hostages as agreed in the cease-fire agreement. He accused Israel of violating the agreement following mass shootings Tuesday in eastern Gaza City and the region’s southern city of Rafah.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said on Wednesday that the military was operating along the line of deployment set out in the agreement and warned that anyone approaching the line would be targeted, as happened against several militants on Tuesday.
The bodies of the two hostages released from Gaza were to be buried on Wednesday. Family members called on the public to gather along the road on Wednesday afternoon to accompany the body of one hostage as it was transferred from a forensic laboratory to a cemetery north of Tel Aviv.
In the past, tens of thousands of Israelis lined the streets and stood silently holding Israeli flags to pay their respects to the bodies of hostages headed for burial.
On Monday, Israelis celebrated return of the last 20 living hostages Gazans and Palestinians rejoiced as Israel released around 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the first phase of the ceasefire.
Family members of the hostages and their supporters have expressed disappointment in recent days that so few of the 28 dead hostages were released. Hamas and the Red Cross said the vast destruction in the Gaza Strip made it difficult to recover the remains of the deceased hostages, and Hamas told ceasefire brokers that some hostages were in areas controlled by Israeli forces.
Hamas had released four bodies by Monday night, followed by four more bodies late Tuesday.
out of that Second group of four bodiesthree people have been identified, a group representing many of their families announced Wednesday. The Hostage Families Forum, an organization representing many of the hostage families, said the three were Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levy.
Baruch was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the attack. war in gaza.
Nimrodi was working for the Israeli Defense Agency, which oversees humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, when he was taken by armed men at the Erez border crossing. According to the forum, Levi was kidnapped while driving a friend to Kibbutz Beeri during the Hamas attack.
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Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
