Hamas hands over body of presumed hostage to Israel, as 6 families await ID process

The Red Cross transferred the body of a presumed hostage from Hamas to Israeli security forces in Gaza on Friday night.

The casket was then brought into Israeli territory and taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification.

Hamas said earlier Friday that it would return a deceased hostage whose remains were discovered in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Hamas statement came after its smaller ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, announced it would hand over the body of a hostage. The remains were ostensibly first held by PIJ before being transferred to Hamas for the handover to the Red Cross.

Until Friday, there were six deceased hostages still being held in Gaza.

They include Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war, and five hostages whose bodies were snatched to Gaza after they were murdered on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

The five October 7 hostages are Meny Godard, 73, who was murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists alongside his wife, Ayelet; Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, 24, who was killed battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim; Dror Or, 48, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists at his home in Kibbutz Be’eri; Sudthisak Rinthalak, 43, who was murdered at Be’eri, where he was an agricultural worker; and Lior Rudaeff, 61, who was killed near his home in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak while aiding the local rapid response team in its battle against Hamas terrorists.

As part of the October 9 ceasefire with Israel, Hamas has released the last 20 living hostages and the remains of 22 deceased hostages.

The terror group has also returned remains that turned out not to belong to any hostage, and in one case, remains of a deceased hostage whose remains had already been partially retrieved by the IDF in December 2023.