Israel receives 2 bodies of Israeli prisoners killed in Gaza

Today, 18 bodies of hostages are still held in the Gaza Strip. Tel Aviv says Hamas could try harder to find them. Israeli officials say clues about the location of these hostage graves were passed on to intermediaries. To help search for bodies, Turkey sent 81 experts from its disaster management agency, but the team has remained blocked at the border with Egypt since Friday, a Turkish government source told AFP.

The impasse threatens to further reduce humanitarian aid to Gaza if Hamas does not strictly comply with the agreement. Since the ceasefire came into force on October 10, the Islamic group has handed over the remains of ten hostages: nine Israelis and a Nepalese student.

Some of the bodies were buried in tunnels destroyed by Israel, the group says. Others are under the rubble of buildings that were bombed and destroyed.

Extremists also indicate that Israeli attacks killed the hostages. “The Nazi occupation army that killed these prisoners is the same one that caused their burial under the rubble,” Hamas says elsewhere.

The delay in clearing the Rafah crossing, on the border between Gaza and Egypt, also hampers the search, according to the group. “Therefore, any delay in the delivery of bodies is the sole responsibility of the Netanyahu government, which is obstructing and preventing the provision of the necessary means to do so.”

“Absolutely appalling,” says UN director on Gaza

The UN’s director of humanitarian operations, Tom Fletcher, said part of the site had been turned into “wasteland.”. “I was here seven or eight months ago. Most of the buildings were still standing. But now it’s absolutely astonishing to see how much of the city has turned into a wasteland,” Fletcher told AFP in the Sheikh Raduan neighborhood in northern Gaza City.