The partial remains of three bodies that Hamas handed over to Israel on Friday night via the Red Cross were assessed by Israeli authorities as not belonging to any hostages, The Times of Israel has learned.
The assessment on Saturday was made following the completion of identification efforts at the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv.
The terror group’s military wing confirmed it handed over the remains of three bodies to Israel.
According to the Al-Qassam Brigades, it had offered samples of the unidentified bodies it found, but “the enemy refused to receive the samples and requested to receive the bodies for examination.”
Hamas said it handed over the remains “to counter the enemy’s claims.”
There was no comment from Israel on the transfer, but it has previously charged that the terror group knows the location of the vast majority of the remaining bodies of hostages, and is purposely stalling.
Hamas, in its statement, said its teams were ready to continue to work on “extracting the bodies of enemy captives inside the Yellow Line,” referring to areas of the Strip under Israel Defense Forces control.
“The Al-Qassam Brigades demand that the intermediaries and the International Committee of the Red Cross provide and prepare the equipment and teams necessary to recover all the bodies simultaneously,” the terror group added.
The bodies of 11 hostages are still held by terror groups in the Strip.
The Red Cross on Friday night said it transferred the partial remains of three bodies from the terror group to Israel.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in its role as a neutral intermediary, assisted this evening at the request and with the approval of the parties in returning the remains of three bodies to the Israeli authorities,” the ICRC said in a statement.
The remains were taken out of the Gaza Strip and to the forensic institute for identification.
Earlier this week, Hamas returned the partial remains of Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was recovered by the IDF nearly two years prior.
Military drone footage showed the terror group staging the discovery of the remains before handing them over to the Red Cross, which Tzarfati’s family decried as Hamas “manipulation.”
On Thursday, Hamas returned to Israel the remains of slain hostages Amiram Cooper, 84, and Sahar Baruch, 25, marking the first time in over a week it handed over bodies of deceased captives.
It is unclear when Hamas will return the bodies of the 11 remaining deceased captives, or how many it has access to.
The ceasefire agreement required Hamas to return all remaining 48 living and deceased hostages within 72 hours. While the group followed through in handing over all 20 living hostages, it returned only four of the 28 bodies still held in Gaza hours after the deadline. It has since returned another 13 bodies.
