Israeli military says one of the bodies handed over by Hamas is not that
of a hostage
[October 15, 2025]
By MELANIE LIDMAN and SAMY MAGDY
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military said Wednesday that one of
the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of the
ceasefire deal is not that of a hostage who was held in Gaza, adding to
tensions over the fragile truce in the two-year war.
Four bodies were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday to ease pressure on the
ceasefire, following an earlier four on Monday — hours after the last 20
living hostages were released. In all, Israel has been awaiting the
return of the bodies of 28 deceased hostages.
Israel, which released around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees
on Monday, is also handing over bodies of Palestinians under the deal, a
step awaited by many families in Gaza whose relatives went missing
during the war.
The military said that after the "examinations at the National Institute
of Forensic Medicine, 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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded earlier Wednesday
that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal —
introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump — about the return of the
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,” Netanyahu said.
Returning all living and dead hostages
The U.S.-proposed ceasefire plan 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 didn’t happen, Hamas was to share information
about deceased hostages and try to hand over all as soon as possible.
This is not the first time Hamas has returned a wrong body to Israel.
Earlier this year during a previous ceasefire, the group said it handed
over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons. Israelis endured
another moment of agony when testing showed that one of the bodies
returned was identified as a Palestinian woman.
Bibas’ body was returned a day later and positively identified.
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 of the truce that some are in areas controlled by
Israeli troops.
Hazem Kassem, a spokesperson for Hamas, said on the Telegram messaging
app on Wednesday that the group was working to return the bodies of the
hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal. He accused Israel of violating
the deal with shootings Tuesday in eastern Gaza City and the territory's
southern city of Rafah.
Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said Wednesday the military is
operating along the deployment lines laid out in the deal and warned
that anyone approaching the deployment line will be targeted — as had
happened on Tuesday with several militants.
Two hostages whose bodies were released from Gaza were to be buried on
Wednesday. The family invited the public to gather along the road in the
afternoon to accompany the body of one hostage from a forensics
institute to a cemetery north of Tel Aviv.
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A gunman wearing the uniform of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military
wing of Hamas, stands guard as Red Cross vehicles allegedly
transporting coffins containing the bodies of four deceased hostages
leave a warehouse for Israel, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025.
(AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)
Separately, forensic experts in Gaza on Wednesday started
identifying 45 bodies of Palestinians that Israel handed over
through the Red Cross the previous day without identification.
Israel is expected to transfer more bodies, though the total number
has not been announced.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the bodies were those of people
who died in Israeli prisons or bodies taken from Gaza by Israeli
troops. During the war, the Israeli military has exhumed bodies as
part of its search for the remains of hostages.
Desperately needed aid to Gaza
The entrance of humanitarian aid to Gaza was paused for the past two
days due to the prisoner and hostage exchange on Monday and a Jewish
holiday Tuesday.
The Egyptian Red Crescent said 400 trucks carrying food, fuel, and
medical supplies were bound for the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, while
Israel and Hamas argue over the slow return of the bodies of
deceased hostages.
The Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT,
notified humanitarian organizations on Tuesday that it would allow
into Gaza only half of the 600 daily aid trucks called for under the
deal.
It was not immediately clear whether it was following through on the
threat. COGAT declined to comment on the number of trucks expected
to enter Gaza on Wednesday.
On Monday, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 living
hostages in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of
some 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire’s first
phase.
Families of hostages and their supporters have expressed dismay
these past days that so few of the dead hostages were being
released. 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 told mediators of the truce that some are in
areas controlled by Israeli troops.
The first four bodies released were all identified as hostages and
of the second group of four bodies, three were identified — Uriel
Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levi.
Baruch was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the
Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war
in Gaza.
Nimrodi, who had been serving with the Israeli defense body
overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, was taken by militants from the
Erez border crossing. The Hostages Family Forum, a group
representing many of the hostages’ families, says Levi was kidnapped
while driving a friend to Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas attack.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo.
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