Israel says 3 bodies received from Gaza are not hostages

Israel said on Saturday that three of the bodies handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross on Friday were not hostages who were taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by the militant group.

A forensic analysis done overnight revealed that the remains are not any of the remaining bodies, an Israeli army spokesman said on Saturday, according to media reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Saturday confirmed that the remains did not belong to any of the hostages, without giving further details, the Associated Press reported. “The remains we received are not our hostages,” the office said.

It was the latest strain in the fragile U.S.-brokered agreement for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Israel is still awaiting the return of 11 more bodies that Hamas agreed to hand over as part of the truce.

The latest handover came after Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinian prisoners to Gaza on Friday, completing an exchange that followed the transfer by Hamas of the remains of two hostages earlier in the week. The militant group has so far returned 17 of the 28 hostages that were agreed to as part of the ceasefire deal.

The ceasefire remains fragile after Israeli strikes this week killed at least 100 people across Gaza, including 35 children, according to local health officials, after Israel accused Hamas of violating the truce by failing to return captives’ bodies and attacking Israeli troops.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that “dozens of Hamas commanders” had been killed in the strikes.