Red Cross ‘concerned and unsatisfied’ by Hamas handovers of hostages

The Red Cross is “concerned and unsatisfied” with the way Hamas hostage release operations have taken place, it tells Reuters, after Israel said one of the returned bodies did not belong to any of the hostages held in Gaza.

Two of the four bodies handed over yesterday were identified as infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, while a third body that was supposed to be their mother, Shiri, was found not to match with any hostage and remained unidentified, the IDF said. The fourth was that of slain hostage Oded Lifshitz.

“The ICRC does not participate in sorting, screening, or examining the deceased — this is the responsibility of the parties to the conflict,” it says in a statement while expressing concern that the releases have not been conducted privately and in a dignified manner.