DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel on Tuesday said it received human remains that Palestinian militants 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 remains were then taken for forensic testing and identification in Tel Aviv. The handover is the latest under last month's fragile ceasefire that has held despite accusations by both sides of violations.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it found the remains earlier this week in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza.
Palestinian militants have returned 25 bodies of hostages under the ceasefire deal that went into effect on Oct. 10. The remaining hostages are two Israelis and a man from Thailand. 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 the remains of hostages because they are buried under rubble from Israel’s two-year offensive. Israel has accused the militants 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 amounted to a ceasefire violation.
A rising death toll in Gaza
While daily fighting has stopped, the death toll has gone up as Israel strikes parts of Gaza 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. It said the bodies were brought to hospitals along with 14 others recovered from the rubble over the past 24 hours. Those brought the death toll to 345 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect, the ministry said.
On Tuesday night, Israel's military said it killed five militants emerging from a tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza and another who crossed into an Israeli-held part of northern Gaza and approached troops.
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.
Meanwhile, families in Gaza confronted heavy winter rains that worsened dire humanitarian conditions for many of the 2 million people displaced by the war.
Planning for Gaza stabilization force
Planning was underway for an international stabilization force mandated by the U.N. last week during the approval of 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 U.S. plan also includes a transitional authority to be overseen by President Donald Trump and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.
Seeking visits for detained Palestinians
Israeli human rights organizations HaMoked, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel filed a petition on Tuesday to Israel's high court calling on authorities to resume family visits for Palestinian prisoners suspected of being militants.
Family visits were suspended at the beginning of the war in Gaza. Since then, the number of Palestinians dying in Israeli custody has surged, and prison populations have doubled. Rights groups allege systematic violence and denial of medical care as key causes of deaths.
HaMoked attorney Daniel Shenhar said “Israel has almost completely cut off Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the outside world.”
A popemobile for Gaza
The Catholic charity Caritas on Tuesday unveiled the late Pope Francis’ so-called popemobile in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Per Francis’ request, it has been transformed into a mobile health clinic and is supposed to be sent to Gaza to help care for children.
“This vehicle stands as a testament. The world has not forgotten the children of Gaza,” said Cardinal Anders Arborelius, the bishop of Stockholm, Sweden.
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Janetsky reported from Jerusalem and Magdy reported from Cairo. Niniek Karmini contributed to this report from Jakarta, Indonesia.
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Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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