Israel on Tuesday said it received human remains that Palestinian fighters handed over to the Red Cross, but it was not immediately clear if they were one of three hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remains will be taken for forensics testing and identification.
The handover is the latest under last month's fragile ceasefire that has held despite mutual accusations of violations.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it found the remains earlier this week in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza.
Palestinian fighters have returned 25 bodies of hostages under the ceasefire deal that went into effect on Oct. 10. In return, Israel has released the bodies of 330 Palestinians to Gaza. Most remain unidentified.
Under Israeli pressure to hurry, Hamas says it has not been able to reach all remains of hostages because they are buried under rubble from Israel’s two-year offensive. Israel has accused the fighters of dragging their feet and threatened to resume military operations or withhold humanitarian aid if all remains are not returned.
Netanyahu’s office asserted that the delay in returning remains amounted to a ceasefire violation. The remaining hostages have been two Israelis and a man from Thailand.
Lack of DNA kits in Gaza
Palestinian officials have struggled to identify bodies returned by Israel without access to DNA kits. Only 95 have been identified, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government.
Meanwhile, families in Gaza confronted the aftermath of heavy winter rains that underscore the dire humanitarian conditions for many of the 2 million people displaced by the war.
Aid has slowly entered Gaza, but organizations like the United Nation humanitarian office have warned that shortages of crucial goods like food and winter supplies persist, and have called on Israel to ease aid restrictions.
The war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages. Almost all of the hostages or their remains have been returned in ceasefires or other deals.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says 69,775 Palestinians have been killed and 170,863 injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures but has said women and children make up a majority of those killed. The ministry is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.
A rising death toll in Gaza
While daily fighting has stopped in Gaza, the death toll has continued to go up as Israel strikes parts of the territory in response to what it says are ceasefire violations by Hamas.
Gaza's health ministry on Tuesday said Israeli forces killed three people east of Khan Younis in the south. The ministry said the bodies were brought to hospitals along with 14 others recovered from under the rubble over the past 24 hours.
On Monday, Palestinian officials said at least four people in Gaza were killed by Israeli fire. Those brought the death toll to 345 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect, the ministry said.
Two men were killed when Israeli forces opened fire in the Tufah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, according to Shifa Hospital. Two more were killed in Beni Suaila town east of Khan Younis, officials at Nasser Hospital said.
Israel's military said it killed “three terrorists” it said had crossed the so-called yellow line separating areas controlled by Hamas from those held by Israeli forces. The military didn’t account for the fourth fatality Palestinian officials reported.
Planning for Gaza stabilization force
Planning was underway for an international stabilization force mandated by the UN last week while approving Washington's 20-point blueprint to secure and govern Gaza.
Indonesia said Tuesday it was preparing troops. Officials said the final deployment would await an official order from Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who has said his country was ready to deploy 20,000 peacekeepers to Gaza at any time.
Gen. Agus Subianto, chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces, told reporters the contingent would be a brigade consisting of health, engineering and mechanized support battalions, and that the military was preparing other support including three hospital warships, a C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and a helicopter.
The US plan also includes a transitional authority to be overseen by President Donald Trump and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.
