During the recovery of a hostage’s remains in Gaza, Hamas admits to deceiving Israel

The Palestinian movement Hamas has admitted to using “deceptive methods” during the recovery of an Israeli hostage’s remains in Gaza.

On Wednesday, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, acknowledged that it had employed “deceptive tactics” during operations to retrieve the remains of an Israeli hostage, in order to prevent potential Israeli strikes on the locations where bodies were being exhumed.

Last week, the Israeli army accused Hamas of “deception” in its handling of the search for the body of a hostage held in Gaza—one of 28 sets of remains the group was supposed to hand over under the ceasefire agreement.

According to the Israeli military, several Hamas members were filmed “removing parts of a body from a prepared building and reburying them nearby,” with drone footage purportedly documenting the act.

Agence France-Presse was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the footage, and the Israeli army did not specify the date or location of the recording. However, it claimed that the video proves Hamas is “attempting to create false and misleading appearances of efforts to locate the bodies.”

In a statement released Wednesday, the al-Qassam Brigades said that the footage broadcast by Israel was part of “a diversion operation conducted by Hamas fighters that successfully misled the enemy.” The group added that Israel had tried to exploit the footage to “defame the movement.”

Hamas further explained that, as part of its security deception, it had employed several misleading techniques during the recovery of the bodies to confuse Israel and deny it access to accurate information.

The al-Qassam Brigades also released another video on Wednesday showing two masked men, identified as members of the group, inside a destroyed building. They are seen covering a long cushion with a sheet before placing it inside a white body bag.