BEIRUT, August 5. /TASS/. Israel has handed over the bodies of more than 80 bodies of Palestinians killed in the escalation of tensions in the Middle East to the Palestinian movement Hamas, the group said.

According to the statement posted on its Telegram channel, the bodies were in a state of "complete decomposition, without any possibility of identifying them." The movement did not specify whether the remains were those of Hamas supporters or civilians in the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed the information. According to the ministry, the dead were buried in one of the cemeteries in the enclave.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank. In late November 2023, a temporary humanitarian ceasefire was brokered by Egypt and Qatar that lasted a week, during which 110 hostages were released, according to Israel. On December 1, the ceasefire was violated and fighting resumed, continuing to this day.