One of the last bodies of hostages still held in Gaza was received by the Red Cross in the Jewish state in the evening, the Israeli army announced on Friday. Of the 28 people involved, 22 remains were returned to Israel. The last six are those of five Israelis and one Thai.
Published on: 07/11/2025 - 18:10Modified on: 07/11/2025 - 21:08
The Israeli army announced on Friday evening, November 7, that Hamas had handed over to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip a coffin containing the body of a hostage, as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“According to information provided by the Red Cross, the coffin of a deceased hostage has been released to his care, and is on its way to (Israeli) soldiers in the Gaza Strip,” a brief military statement said.
The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas had announced earlier that it would return in the evening the body of one of the last hostages still held in Gaza.
"As part of the prisoner exchange agreement, the Al-Quds Brigades (armed branch of Islamic Jihad, Editor's note) and the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades (military branch of Hamas, Editor's note) will hand over at 9 p.m. Gaza time (7 p.m. GMT) the body of a prisoner (...) found today in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip," indicated a brief statement from the organization.
Under the terms of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which came into force on October 10 under pressure from the United States after more than two years of war in Gaza, Hamas and its allies must still return six hostage remains.
Since the start of the truce, Hamas has released all 20 surviving hostages in one go in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and has begun returning the remains of dead hostages.
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Of the 28 people affected, 22 were returned to Israel.
The last six remains are those of five Israelis and a Thai.
Except for the remains of one soldier who died in action in 2014 in a previous Gaza war, the other five were taken as hostages during the unprecedented Hamas attack that sparked the war on October 7, 2023.
Despite several moments of tension, a fragile truce has held in Gaza since October 10.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of slowing down the process of returning the bodies. The Islamist movement claims that this slowness can be explained by the fact that many remains are buried under the rubble of Gaza.
With AFP
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