KHAN YUNIS: Israel returned the bodies of 45 Palestinians on Wednesday, bringing the total number handed over to 90, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said it received 45 additional bodies of Palestinians from Israel, another step in implementation of the agreement. The bodies of 90 Palestinians have now been transferred. It was unclear whether the deceased had died in Israeli custody or were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops while searching for hostages.
Four bodies of hostages had been handed over by Hamas on Tuesday, following four on Monday, hours after the last 20 living hostages were released from Gaza. In all, Israel has been awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 deceased hostages.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Israel released around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Monday.
Meanwhile, The Israeli military said Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of the ceasefire deal is not that of a hostage who was held in Gaza, adding to tensions over the fragile truce in the two-year war.
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.
Hazem Kassem, a Hamas spokesperson, said on the Telegram messaging app that the group was working to return the bodies of the hostages as agreed.
Kassem also accused Israel of violating the deal with shootings on Tuesday in eastern Gaza City and the southern city of Rafah.
Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said the military is operating along the deployment lines troops withdrew to under the deal, and warned that anyone approaching the deployment line will be targeted, as happened on Tuesday with several militants.
Two hostages whose bodies were released from Gaza were being buried on Wednesday.
