Israel returns remains of dozens of slain Palestinians to Gaza, Hamas health ministry says

Hamas says 54 bodies and 66 other boxes of human remains taken by Red Cross to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital for identification; Israel does not comment

Israel returned the bodies of of 54 slain Palestinians and 66 other boxes of human remains to Gaza on Wednesday, transferring the remains to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital via the Red Cross, the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry said.

Medical staff will work to identify the bodies and remains, and to return them to their families, the ministry said.

Israel did not comment on the reported transfer of the remains.

According to a Sunday court filing by the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a Palestinian group that has petitioned the High Court for the release of Palestinians’ bodies, Israel holds the bodies of over 700 Palestinians.

The legal group said that the bodies come from both Gaza and the West Bank, and they include hundreds of unidentified people killed by Israel in the Strip during the war since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.

Last week, in accordance with the October 9 Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, Israel handed over the bodies of 15 Gazans, following the retrieval of the body of Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage in Gaza.

Before Wednesday, Israel had only handed over the remains of Palestinians it was holding during the current ceasefire in exchange for slain hostages, at a ratio of 15:1.

According to reports in Palestinian media, Israel has returned the remains of 360  Gazans to the Strip since the ceasefire took effect in October.

Of the 360 bodies and remains returned, medical authorities have only confirmed the identities of some 100 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry data, with the rest buried as unidentified.

According to the health ministry, the death toll from the war in the Gaza Strip is over 71,800, including more than 500 people killed during the current ceasefire.

While Israel has largely rejected death tolls claimed by Hamas’s health ministry during the war, a senior Israeli military official acknowledged to reporters last week that the IDF believes the Hamas toll has been largely accurate, estimating that around 70,000 Gazans have been killed.

According to the military official, the toll does not include bodies believed to be buried under the rubble in Gaza, which Hamas estimates at around 10,000.

The senior official said the actual breakdown of the Gaza death toll is still under review, and it is unknown exactly how many of the dead are members of terror groups and how many people died directly as a result of the fighting.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.