Eight Remain… Israel Reveals the Identities of Three Bodies Handed Over by Hamas

Israel announced on Monday the identities of three bodies it received from Hamas on Sunday, bringing to twenty the number of remains recovered out of twenty-eight included in the ongoing exchange agreement between the two sides.

In a statement, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “after the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in coordination with the Israeli Police and the Military Rabbinate,” the families of the hostages – Colonel Asaf Hamami, Captain Omer Maxim Naotra, who also held U.S. citizenship, and Staff Sergeant Oz Daniel – were informed that “the remains of their sons have been returned to the country for burial.”

On Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Israel had received the remains of three hostages from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza.

Following this identification, Israel has now received twenty of the twenty-eight bodies included in the exchange deal, leaving eight still to be handed over.

Under the terms of the agreement, Israel is to return the bodies of fifteen Palestinians in exchange for each hostage’s remains.

Reports suggest that Israel has been holding the bodies of several hundred Palestinians since October 7, 2023.

For its part, Hamas had announced its intention to deliver all the bodies in recent days but has been unable to do so, claiming that some of the remains are located in areas of the Gaza Strip currently controlled by the Israeli army.