Tensions rise as Israel says body released by Hamas was not that of a hostage

The Israeli military said that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of the ceasefire deal is not that of a hostage who was held in Gaza, adding to tensions over the fragile truce in the two-year war.

Gaza’s health ministry said it received 45 additional bodies of Palestinians from Israel.

The bodies of 90 Palestinians have now been transferred.

It was unclear whether the deceased had died in Israeli custody or were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops.

Four bodies of hostages from Gaza were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday to ease pressure on the ceasefire, following an earlier four on Monday, hours after the last 20 living hostages were released.

In all, Israel has been awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 deceased hostages.

Israel, which released around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Monday, is also handing over bodies of Palestinians under the deal, a step awaited by many families in Gaza whose relatives went missing during the war.

The military said that after the “examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages.”

There was no immediate word on whose body it was.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Hamas fulfil the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal, introduced by US President Donald Trump, about the return of the hostages’ bodies.

“We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts until we return the last deceased hostage, until the last one,” Mr Netanyahu said.

The US-proposed ceasefire plan had called for all hostages, living and dead, to be handed over by a deadline that expired on Monday.

But under the deal, if that did not happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand over all as soon as possible.

This is not the first time Hamas has returned a wrong body to Israel.

Earlier this year during a previous ceasefire, the group said it handed over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons.

Israelis endured another moment of agony when testing showed that one of the bodies returned was identified as a Palestinian woman.

Ms Bibas’ body was returned a day later and positively identified.

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

Hazem Kassem, a spokesperson for Hamas, said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday that the group was working to return the bodies of the hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.

He accused Israel of violating the deal with shootings Tuesday in eastern Gaza City and the territory’s southern city of Rafah.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said Wednesday the military is operating along the deployment lines laid out in the deal and warned that anyone approaching the deployment line will be targeted as had happened on Tuesday with several militants.

Two hostages whose bodies were released from Gaza were to be buried on Wednesday.

The family invited the public to gather along the road in the afternoon to accompany the body of one hostage from a forensics institute to a cemetery north of Tel Aviv.

The entrance of humanitarian aid to Gaza was paused for the past two days due to the prisoner and hostage exchange on Monday and a Jewish holiday on Tuesday.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said 400 lorries carrying food, fuel, and medical supplies were bound for the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, while Israel and Hamas argue over the slow return of the bodies of deceased hostages.

The Israeli defence body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, Cogat, notified humanitarian organisations on Tuesday that it would allow into Gaza only half of the 600 daily aid trucks called for under the deal.

It was not immediately clear whether it was following through on the threat.

Cogat declined to comment on the number of lorries expected to enter Gaza on Wednesday.