Hamas handed over the remains of another Israeli hostage to the Red Cross in Gaza on Wednesday, a day after returning the body of Staff Sergeant Itay Chen, an Israeli-American soldier killed in the 7 October 2023 attack.
The Israeli military said the group handed over remains believed to be those of a deceased hostage, the latest step under the United States-brokered ceasefire. The remains were found in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City, where Egyptian workers and a bulldozer were seen digging in a heavily damaged area while masked members of its military wing guarded the site. Red Cross vehicles were also present.
The remains were taken into Israel for identification at the National Centre of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv. If the remains are confirmed as those of a hostage, Hamas will have returned 22 of the 28 bodies held in Gaza, leaving six still to be recovered. Before the latest handover, the group had returned the remains of 21 hostages since the ceasefire began on 10 October.
Hamas returns body of Itay Chen
The day before the latest handover, the group returned the body of Staff Sergeant Itay Chen on Tuesday night. Chen, 19, was killed on 7 October 2023 while on duty with his tank unit at the Nahal Oz base, and his body was taken into Gaza. He was the last slain hostage with United States citizenship still held in Gaza.
Israel confirmed on Wednesday that the remains handed over the night before were Chen’s, after identification at the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv. The prime minister’s office said Israeli army representatives had informed Chen’s family that their loved one had been returned and identified. When the Red Cross transferred his casket to Israeli forces, the army draped it with the national flag and held a short military ceremony before escorting the body to the institute.
Hamas searches continue in Shijaiyah
Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said it had found the latest remains during searches and excavations in Shijaiyah, east of Gaza City. A team from the Red Cross and the brigades had been searching the neighbourhood for a third day in a row. Earlier in the day, Israel handed over the bodies of 15 more Palestinians, a day after the return of Chen’s body. So far Israel has handed over 285 bodies, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which handles the exchanges.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas must return all hostage remains as quickly as possible, and Israel must return the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every hostage handed over. Hamas freed 20 living hostages on 13 October, when thousands of people waited at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv and greeted the news with cheering, hugging and weeping. The further exchanges of the dead are the main part of the first phase of the United States-brokered agreement.
Three bodies identified on Monday
On Monday, Israel announced the identification of three bodies of military prisoners that it received on Sunday evening from Hamas through the Red Cross, including Colonel Assaf Hamami, the highest-ranking officer captured by the brigades. By receiving Chen’s body on Tuesday evening, Israel had received 19 bodies of prisoners out of 28 since the agreement began, most of them Israelis. Israeli officials had said one set of remains handed over earlier did not match any hostage.
The group’s spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, said the group is working to transfer all remaining hostages’ bodies, although he said the search faces serious difficulties. The war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Ahmed Dheir, director of forensic medicine at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said the remains of 300 Palestinians have now been returned, with 89 identified.
The identification process for the latest remains was still under way on Wednesday, and the family will be told once it is complete. Under the deal promoted by President Donald Trump, Hamas agreed to return 20 living hostages and 28 bodies within 72 hours. The search for the remaining bodies is expected to take weeks, with Egyptian and Turkish teams expected to help locate them in the rubble of Gaza.