Red Cross hands over remains of four Israeli hostages

Hamas has eased the pressure on a fragile ceasefire in its war with Israel by returning the bodies of more dead hostages.

The move comes after an Israeli military agency said it would slash aid deliveries to Gaza by half over concerns that the militant group was handing over the remains at a slower pace than had been agreed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had handed over four deceased hostages to Israel “in line with the ceasefire agreement”.

This latest transfer comes a day after Israel received the remains of another four hostages.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office in famine-stricken Gaza received word of the humanitarian aid cuts from the Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, according to spokesperson Olga Cherevko.

In its notification, the agency known as Cogat said it would allow 300 trucks a day instead of the 600 called for under the deal.

US president Donald Trump also expressed concern in a social media post that too few of the dead hostages have been returned.

Mr Trump also warned Hamas that if “they don’t disarm, we will disarm them”.

He made no mention of Israel halving the flow of aid into the territory.

A day earlier, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 living hostages in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of some 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire’s first phase.

Hamas and the Red Cross have said that recovering the remains of dead hostages is a challenge because of Gaza’s destruction, and Hamas told mediators of the deal that some are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.

The US-proposed ceasefire plan called for all hostages living and dead to be handed over within 72 hours, meaning on Monday.

But it provided a mechanism if that did not happen, saying Hamas should share information about deceased hostages and “exert maximum effort” to carry out the handover as soon as possible.

Families of hostages and their supporters expressed dismay that only four of the 28 bodies were returned on Monday.

The Hostages Family Forum, representing many families, called it a “blatant violation of the agreement by Hamas”.

The top official in Israel coordinating the return of hostages and the missing, Gal Hirsch, told the families in a note that pressure was being applied on Hamas through mediators to expedite the process. A copy of the note was seen by the AP and its authenticity was confirmed by someone with knowledge of the statement.

On Tuesday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the identity of the four dead hostages returned on Monday: Guy Illouz from Israel, Bipin Joshi from Nepal, Cpt Daniel Peretz and Yossi Sharabi.

Mr Illouz was abducted from a music festival; Mr Joshi from a bomb shelter and Sharabi from Be’eri Kibbutz during Hamas-led attack that ignited the war on October 7 2023.

Israel said Mr Illouz died of his wounds without proper medical treatment, while Mr Joshi was killed in the war’s first months.

Families left waiting have expressed concern.

Meanwhile, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, where hundreds of prisoners and detainees were released, several have been taken to hospitals.

Murad Barakat, medical director of the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, said the facility received 14 men and discharged all but two.

Doctors said their conditions suggested they “were subjected to severe beatings, reflecting the extent of the violence they endured”, said Imed al-Shami, a resident doctor at the hospital.

Kamal Abu Shanab, who was released after more than 18 years, said beatings caused his shoulder to tear. “For eight months, I wasn’t given even a pill for the pain,” he said.

The war has killed more than 67,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants.

It says women and children make up around half the dead, and many independent experts say its figures are the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.