Hamas hands over the Red Cross coffin containing the body of the Gaza hostage

Hamas has handed over a coffin containing what the Palestinian group claims is the body of a deceased hostage to the Red Cross in northern Gaza, the Israeli army said.

The remains will be handed over to Israeli forces, who will take them to the National Center for Foreign Medicine in Tel Aviv for identification.

Earlier, Hamas’s armed wing said it had recovered the body of an Israeli soldier in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood.

Israel had allowed members of the group and Red Cross employees to search for the remains in the area, which is within territory still controlled by Israeli forces.

The Israeli government has accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the dead hostages since a ceasefire came into effect more than three weeks ago.

Hamas has stressed the difficulty in locating the bodies under the rubble.

Under the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead hostages it was still holding within 72 hours.

All living Israeli hostages were released on October 13 in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 Gaza detainees.

Israel handed over the bodies of 270 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 18 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas before Tuesday, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepali.

Six of the eight dead hostages still in Gaza before Tuesday were Israelis, one Tanzanian and one Thai.

All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 other people were killed.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, killing more than 68,800 people in the area, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry.

Earlier on Tuesday, a hospital official in Gaza City said a man was killed by Israeli fire in the Jabalia area of ​​northern Gaza.

The Israeli army said its forces had killed a “terrorist” who had crossed the “Yellow Line,” which demarcates Israeli-controlled territory, and posed a threat to them.