UPDATE - Hamas hands over remains of Israeli hostage under Gaza ceasefire deal

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Betul Yilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) – Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad returned the remains of another Israeli hostage in northern Gaza on Wednesday under a ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli army confirmed that Red Cross teams received the coffin of a hostage, and were on their way to transfer the body to its troops inside Gaza.

The transfer was part of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took effect in Gaza on Oct. 10.

Israel insists that the bodies of two hostages remain in Gaza, claiming that one of the bodies transferred by Hamas did not belong to any of its captives and another set of remains was not new but belonged to a captive whose body had been previously recovered.

After the handover, Palestinian factions called for pressuring Israel to meet its obligations under the ceasefire deal.

They called on mediators and guarantors of the ceasefire agreement to exert pressure on the Israeli authorities to open the Rafah border crossing from both directions, as stipulated in the deal and UN Security Council Resolution 2803.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military body COGAT claimed that the Rafah border crossing will be opened for the exit of Palestinians in the upcoming days in coordination with Egypt.

Egypt, however, denied the claim, noting that any opening is required to be from both directions in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others in a brutal assault that also left the enclave in ruins.