Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced earlier, during a cabinet meeting, that Israel expected to receive the body of officer Hadar Goldin this afternoon.
In contrast, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that it would hand over the body of officer Golden, which was found on Saturday inside a tunnel in the Yebna camp in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, explaining that it needed additional technical teams and equipment to extract the remaining bodies.
The brigades said in a statement on their Telegram channel that they were committed to the process of extracting the bodies despite the difficult field conditions, stressing that they are placing the mediators before their responsibilities to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire and to prevent the occupation from exploiting it to target civilians.
She added that the Israeli occupation bears full responsibility for the confrontations with her fighters in Rafah, stressing that the Qassam Brigades do not know the principle of surrender or handing themselves over to the enemy in their dictionary.
These developments come more than 11 years after Golden was captured during the 2014 war.
Since the ceasefire agreement began on October 10, the Palestinian resistance has released 20 living prisoners and handed over the bodies of 23 out of 28. Five bodies remain, belonging to a Thai national and four Israelis, including Goldin.