The Hamas terror organization announced Monday afternoon that it will hand over the body of one Israeli hostage killed in captivity at 8 p.m. local time. The announcement comes a day after Hamas claimed it had located the remains of a hostage and would transfer them to Israel “if conditions on the ground allow.”
Amid ongoing IDF strikes in the Gaza Strip—retaliation for Sunday’s deadly incident in Rafah in which Hamas gunmen violated the cease-fire and fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli engineering vehicle, killing Maj. Yaniv Kula, 26, and Sgt. First Class Itay Yavetz, 21, Hamas warned that “any Zionist escalation will disrupt search efforts,” threatening what it called “delays” in locating additional bodies.
Sixteen killed hostages remain in Gaza, after Hamas released all 20 living captives as part of its ceasefire deal with Israel, and has so far returned the bodies of 12 deceased hostages. Hamas has already violated the terms of the agreement, which required it to return all hostages—living and deceased—within 72 hours of the ceasefire’s entry into effect on October 10.
While Hamas claims it does not know the whereabouts of all the bodies and says it requires heavy equipment to recover others, Israeli officials say this is a lie and that Hamas is capable of returning more remains much more quickly.
Two additional bodies were returned to Israel overnight between Saturday and Sunday: Ronen Engel, who was killed defending his family during the October 7 attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz; and Sontaya Okarsri, a Thai citizen murdered during the massacre near Be’eri.
The following 16 deceased hostages remain in Gaza: Sgt. Itay Chen, Lt. Hadar Goldin, Tamir Adar, Dror Or, Sahar Baruch, Sgt. Maj. Ran Gvili, Meni Godard, Cpl. Oz Daniel, Aryeh Zalmanovich, Tal Haimi, Col. Asaf Hamami, Joshua Lewito Mulol, Omer Neutra, Amiram Cooper, Lior Rodaif and Sontisk Rintalk.