DUBAI, January 30. /TASS/. Israel handed over to Palestinian authorities the bodies of more than 80 Palestinians who were killed in the Gaza war in recent weeks, the Al Jazeera television channel reported.

According to the television channel, the bodies were handed over via the Kerem-Shalom checkpoint.

It was reported on December 26, 2023 that Israel had returned to Gaza the bodies of 80 Palestinians, who, according to Al Jazeera, were to be buried in a collective grave in the city of Rafah.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The deal stipulated the release of Israeli women and children being held hostage in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 26,700 Palestinians have been killed and around 70,000 have been wounded in the enclave and the West Bank since October 7, 2023.