Israel returns remains of 30 more Palestinians to Gaza amid fragile ceasefire
The latest transfer brings the total returned to 225 under a US-brokered exchange deal.
Israel has returned the bodies of 30 more Palestinians to Gaza as part of an ongoing exchange deal under a US-brokered ceasefire plan, a hospital told AFP on Friday.
The Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis told AFP that "the bodies of 30 Palestinian prisoners were received from the Israeli side as part of the exchange deal".
Under the truce, Israel is to return 15 Palestinian remains for every deceased Israeli hostage returned by Hamas.
Friday's transfer brings the number returned to Gaza to 225.
The bodies were brought to Nasser hospital by the Red Cross, after being handed over by Israel, as has been the case in previous exchanges, the hospital said.
As the exchanges continue, the ceasefire in Gaza remains fragile with Israel launching a wave of strikes on Gaza overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Palestinian civil defence agency in Gaza said the strikes killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, in the worst night of bombing since the truce went into effect on October 10.
By Wednesday morning, Israel said it had begun "renewed enforcement of the ceasefire", and both US President Donald Trump and regional mediator Qatar said they expected it to hold.
Under the October 10 ceasefire plan, Hamas has already returned 20 surviving hostages.
It has also begun sending back the bodies of 28 deceased hostages known to be missing.
Hamas has sent back 15 bodies identified as Israeli hostages and those of two foreign workers — one Thai and one Nepalese — also taken on October 7, 2023.
It has also returned the partial remains of a deceased Israeli hostage who had already been recovered, as well as an unidentified body that had not been listed among the 28 missing.
There are 10 bodies of October 7 hostages thought to remain in Gaza, plus one more missing since 2014. All are Israeli apart from one Tanzanian and a Thai.
Hamas says it is committed to the ceasefire plan but is struggling to find the remaining dead because two years of Israeli bombardments have erased Gaza’s landmarks.
Egyptian recovery teams equipped with earth-moving equipment have joined the effort to search for the bodies.