One of the four bodies handed over by Hamas, as part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, is not of a hostage held in the Gaza Strip, Israel claimed.
By Monday night, the armed resistance group had released the remains of four captives, and four more followed late last night – but only three have so far been identified.
The Israeli military said that ‘following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages.’
Hamas and the Red Cross have said that recovering the remains of dead hostages was a challenge because of Gaza’s vast destruction.
Some of the remains are understood to be in areas still controlled by Israeli forces.
Christian Cardon, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, stressed that returning all the bodies could take days or weeks – and there was a possibility some may never be discovered.
He warned: ‘That’s an even bigger challenge than having the people alive being released. That’s a massive challenge.’
Meanwhile, Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for the release of hostages and the missing, confirmed that an international task force will work to find the deceased hostages who are not returned within 72 hours.
According to the the Hostages Family Forum, the three identified were Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levi.
The handover came after Israel warned that it would slash aid deliveries to Gaza, but an Israeli security official said that preparations were underway to open Rafah to 600 aid trucks.
The dispute over the return of bodies has the potential to derail the already fragile ceasefire deal along with other major issues yet to be resolved.
How many deceased still remain in Gaza and Israel?
Before Monday’s releases, 48 hostages were still being held in Gaza – 20 of them alive and 28 deceased.
Honouring the ceasefire deal, Hamas handed back all 20 surviving, and is now gradually handing over the remains of the dead.
Four bodies were returned on Monday. They were later identified as Guy Illouz, Bipin Joshi, Yossi Sharabi and Daniel Peretz.
Another more were handed over late last night, but so far only three have been identified.
This means seven of the bodies are confirmed to have been sent back to Israel, while 21 remain in Gaza.
The ceasefire deal also requires that Israel returns the bodies of 360 Palestinian militants killed in battle.
The first group of 45 was handed over on Tuesday and were being identified, said Palestinian health authorities.
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