Hamas hands over remains of captive as Israeli drone strike kills two

Hours after a fragile ceasefire was attacked by Israeli drones in southern Gaza, Hamas has handed over the remains of another dead capt.

The Red Cross was reportedly in the process of transporting the coffin to the army’s troops in Gaza, according to the Israeli military’s statement on Monday.

Hamas has pledged to return the bodies of all 28 of the dead captives as part of a US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on October 10. As of Monday, 16’s remains had been delivered.

As part of the truce, the 20 surviving prisoners were set free on October 13.

The release of the most recent body comes as some of the captives’ families demanded that Hamas halt the ceasefire.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum stated that “Hamas knows where every one of the deceased hostages is held.”

The families demand that Hamas fulfill all of its obligations and give every hostage back to Israel before moving forward with the next stage of the agreement, according to the organization.

The Israeli government’s claim that Hamas is aware of the location of the remains was repeated in the statement.

Because “the occupation has altered the terrain of Gaza,” Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Haya said on Saturday that finding the captives’ bodies was “challenges.”

He suggested that some of the bodies’ burial sites had been forgotten while others had been killed during the war.

An Egyptian technical team was allowed to enter Gaza the day after al-Hayya’s comments, to aid in the search for the bodies. Exploitation vehicles and trucks are used in the search.

At least two people were killed on Monday in an Israeli drone attack close to Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

In total, eight Palestinians have been killed and thirteen others have been injured in recent Israeli attacks in the area, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health on Monday. Since Israel’s war on Gaza started in October 2023, it added that at least 68, 527 people have died and 170, 395 have been injured.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the suggestion that Israel had not violated the truce when it struck a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member on Saturday while taking a photo with the aircraft.

He claimed that the target had planned to attack Israeli forces, but “we don’t view that as a violation of the ceasefire.” If Israel is in imminent danger, they have the right to do so, and all mediators agree.

About 473, 000 people have returned to northern Gaza in the more than two weeks since the truce started, where they are battling severe property destruction and severe food and water shortages, according to the UN.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s leader, Younis al-Khatib, has warned that Gaza’s population is still in a desperate humanitarian need like it was before the truce.

He said during meetings with Norway’s prime minister and foreign minister in Oslo that rebuilding people is more difficult than rebuilding destroyed homes, noting that residents will require mental health care for years to come.

After two years of Israel’s war, the World Health Organization also issued a warning that the number of Palestinians in Gaza who require mental health care has increased from 485 000 to over 1 million.

According to UNICEF, which has declared that Gaza has been “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” over the past two years, almost all the children in the enclave need such assistance.

The group’s spokesperson in Gaza, Tess Ingram, explained that this is due to the “sheer number of children who have lost a loved one or have been killed and injured, displaced, or separated from their families.”

Source: Aljazeera