Red Cross receives remains of two more Hamas hostages to be given to Israel

Mourners walk near the car carrying the coffin of a hostage during a funeral procession in Israel (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

The Red Cross has received the remains of two more Hamas hostages, hours after the Israeli military said that one of the bodies previously turned over was not that of a hostage.

The confusion added to tensions over the fragile truce that has paused the two-year war.

The Israeli military said the International Committee of the Red Cross received the remains, which were to be transferred to Israeli forces in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry said it received 45 more bodies of Palestinians from Israel, another step in implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

Lorries carrying aid from the World Food Programme drive through Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

That brings to 90 the total number of bodies returned to Gaza for burial. The forensics team examining the remains said they showed signs of mistreatment.

As part of the deal, four bodies of hostages were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday, following four on Monday that were returned hours after the last 20 living hostages were released from Gaza.

In all, Israel has been awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 hostages.

The Israeli military said forensic testing showed that “the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages”. There was no immediate word on whose body it was.

In exchange for the release of the hostages, Israel freed around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Monday.

Israel is expected to turn over more bodies, though officials have not said how many are in its custody or how many will be returned.

It is unclear whether the remains belong to Palestinians who died in Israeli custody or were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops. Throughout the war, Israel’s military has exhumed bodies as part of its search for the remains of hostages.

Red Cross vehicles carrying the bodies of deceased Palestinians held by Israel during the war arrive after their release (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

As forensic teams examined the first remains returned, the Health Ministry on Wednesday released images of 32 unidentified bodies to help families recognise missing relatives.

The forensics team that received the bodies said some arrived still shackled or bearing signs of physical abuse.

Sameh Hamad, a member of a commission tasked with receiving the bodies at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, said some arrived with their hands and legs cuffed.

“There are signs of torture and executions,” he told the Associated Press.

The bodies, he said, belonged to men aged 25 to 70.

Mr Hamad said the Red Cross provided names for only three of the dead, leaving many families uncertain of their relatives’ fate.

The fighting has killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in Gaza. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross and Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

An Israeli police officer stands outside Ofer military prison near Jerusalem (Mahmoud Illean/AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Hamas fulfil the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal about the return of hostages’ bodies.

“We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts until we return the last deceased hostage, until the last one,” Mr Netanyahu said.

The ceasefire plan introduced by US President Donald Trump had called for all hostages – living and dead – to be handed over by a deadline that expired on Monday. But under the deal, if that did not happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.

Mr Trump, in an interview with CNN, warned that Israel could resume the war if he feels Hamas is not upholding its end of the agreement.

“Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word,” Mr Trump said.

This is not the first time Hamas has returned a wrong body to Israel. During a previous ceasefire, the group said it handed over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons — among those taken in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted.

Testing in February 2025 showed that one of the bodies returned was identified as a Palestinian woman. Ms Bibas’ body was returned a day later.

Hamas and the Red Cross have said that recovering the remains of dead hostages was a challenge because of Gaza’s vast destruction, and Hamas has told mediators that some are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.

Two hostages whose bodies were released from Gaza were being buried on Wednesday.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Kassem said on the Telegram messaging app that the group was working to return the bodies of the hostages as agreed.

Mr Kassem also accused Israel of violating the deal with shootings on Tuesday in eastern Gaza City and the southern city of Rafah.

Palestinians rush towards trucks carrying aid from the World Food Programme (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said the military is operating along the deployment lines troops withdrew to under the deal, and he warned that anyone approaching the lines will be targeted, as happened on Tuesday with several militants.

The World Food Programme said its trucks began arriving in Gaza after the entrance of humanitarian aid was paused for two days due to the exchange on Monday and a Jewish holiday on Tuesday.

The timing of the scaled-up deliveries – which are part of the ceasefire deal – had been called into question after Israel said on Tuesday that it would cut the number of trucks allowed into Gaza, saying Hamas was too slow to return the hostages’ bodies.

Abeer Etefa, spokesperson for the World Food Programme, lauded the trucks’ passage but said the situation remained unpredictable.

“We’re hopeful that access will improve in the coming days,” she said.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said 400 trucks carrying food, fuel and medical supplies were bound for Gaza on Wednesday.