CAIRO, October 17. /TASS/. Hamas will transfer remains of one more Israeli hostage to Red Cross employees later on Friday, Hamas’ armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has announced.
"The body of one hostage was retrieved today in the Gaza Strip and will be handed over [to medics] at about 11:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. GMT)," it wrote on its Telegram channel.
The Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said earlier, citing Hamas sources that the group will need a "large-scale search operation" to find the bodies of remaining deceased hostages in the Gaza Strip.
On the evening of October 13, Hamas and other Palestinian groups released all the 20 living hostages and handed over the bodies of four deceased hostages under the Gaza ceasefire deal. The hostages were handed over to the Israeli military through the Red Cross and are already in Israel’s territory. In turn, Israel will release 1,968 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving life or long sentences. The Israeli side expressed resentment that Hamas has returned only four out of 28 bodies of deceased hostages. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of failing to implement its commitments under the deal and warned that any delay or deviation from fulfilling obligations will be deemed a gross violation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and will entail an appropriate response. On October 14, four more coffins were handed over to Israel and the remains of two hostages were returned on October 15.
Overall, Israel has received ten coffins with the bodies of deceased hostages in three days. Nine bodies have been identified and handed over to relatives for burial. However, experts from Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine could not identify one of the bodies.