"IDF and Shin Bet (General Security Service) forces inside the Gaza Strip received the coffin of a slain hostage (the remains of an Israeli prisoner) via the Red Cross," the office said in a statement, adding that the remains were transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Israel for the necessary examinations, and that all the families of the slain prisoners were informed of the matter.
This comes after Hamas announced that it had handed over the body of an Israeli prisoner after it was exhumed in Gaza on Friday, bringing the total number of bodies handed over to 11 out of 28, most of them Israeli.
Hamas released 20 living Israeli prisoners last Monday, while stressing that it needs more time to retrieve and return the remaining bodies.
Earlier, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that Tel Aviv doubts that one of the bodies it received from the movement via the Red Cross does not belong to an Israeli prisoner.
The first phase of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement entered into force on October 10, 2023, under US President Donald Trump's plan. Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, in addition to 1,718 detainees from the Gaza Strip after October 8, 2023.
More than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, remain in Israeli prisons, amid human rights reports of torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect that have claimed the lives of several of them.
Since the start of the genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Israel has killed approximately 67,967 Palestinians and injured 170,179 others, most of them women and children. The resulting famine has claimed the lives of 476 Palestinians, including 157 children, and devastated the Strip, which, according to UN estimates, requires $70 billion to rebuild.
