Israel will open a border crossing with Egypt after Hamas hand over the bodies of more hostages. The Israeli authorities had previously halved the number of humanitarian trucks and blocked the Rafah transition as a consequence to a breach of the agreement by the Palestinian terrorist organisation.
Hamas was expected to return the remains of all 28 of the people who were kidnapped on Monday, but only 8 bodies had been released so far. "Hamas is obliged to abide by the agreement and make the essential efforts to return all the corpses" - declared the Israeli army.
Trump criticizes Hamas for misleading
U.S. president Donald Trump accused Hamas of misrepresenting the number of bodies killed hostages to mediators. "We were told they had 26, 24 dead hostages (...) and it seems that they do not have specified information due to the fact that we are talking about a much smaller number" - Trump said on Tuesday.
Israeli forensic doctors confirmed on Wednesday that 1 of the 4 bodies released by Hamas on Tuesday did not belong to any of the hostages. another corpses were identified as bodies of the abducted Israelis: Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi, and Eitan Levi.
Dramatic circumstances of the death of hostages
Uriel Baruch attended a music festival attacked by Palestinian terrorists on October 7, 2023. He was shot and his body was abducted - 35 years old. Tamir Nimrodi was kidnapped from a military base at the age of 19.
Eitan Lewi, a 53-year-old taxi driver, was attacked as he returned from the course to 1 of the border towns - most likely he was killed immediately. On 1 of the videos circulating in Palestinian social services, you can see the body of Levi driving in the streets of Gaza, so that the starers can dig and desecrate them.
Next body returns on Wednesday
Hamas informed the mediators that on Wednesday he would hand over the bodies of 4 more hostages to Israel - the Times of Israel portal reported. The release of the bodies taken is part of the truce between Israel and Hamas in force since Friday.
As part of the agreement, Hamas has already released the last 20 surviving hostages and Israel has released nearly 2,000 detained Palestinians. On Monday Hamas donated 4 bodies that Israeli forensic physicians identified as bodies of Guy Illouz, Josie Sharabi, Daniel Perez, and Nepali agricultural student Bipin Joshi.
Sources used: "PAP" Note: This article has been edited with the aid of Artificial Intelligence.
