Gaza, Palestine – The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced on Sunday evening that
it had handed over the bodies of three Israelis to a team
from the International Committee of the Red Cross
After they were found inside a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip,
This move comes as part of the new phase of the prisoner
exchange agreement between the movement and Israel.
The brigades said in an official statement that they “found the bodies of three prisoners of
the occupation inside one of the branch routes of the tunnel network in the southern Gaza Strip.”
She noted that it was delivered at 8 pm Gaza time.
Mutual human commitment
She explained that the operation was carried out in full coordination with the International Red Cross.
Within the framework of the “mutual humanitarian commitment”
contained in the exchange agreement.
The Israeli army later confirmed in a statement that
the Red Cross had received three coffins in Gaza.
They are on their way to Israel for the necessary tests to determine the identity of their owners.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted security sources as saying that field teams from the Red Cross,
In cooperation with Hamas members, two field tours
were carried out in the Khan Younis and Shuja’iyya neighborhoods.
This is under the direct supervision of the Israeli political level,
to search for the remains of missing persons.
This development comes days after Israel received the remains of three other Israelis.
It later turned out that they were not among the missing prisoners in Gaza.
This sparked widespread controversy within Israeli political and media circles.
Hamas handed over 20 prisoners
Since the start of the temporary ceasefire agreement last October,
Hamas handed over 20 living Israeli prisoners and the remains of 19 others.
The movement says that recovering the remaining bodies
will take time due to the massive destruction left by the war.
According to data from the Government Media Office in Gaza,
More than 9,500 Palestinians are still missing under the rubble of
destruction caused by the two-year-long Israeli war.
Which has claimed the lives of more than 68,000 people and infected about 170,000.
