Israel's National Forensic Institute confirmed that the bodies handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza on Thursday were those of the deceased hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, according to a statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. Both bodies were received through the international organization, and after their identification at the National Forensic Institute, the affected families were notified of their repatriation.
The Israeli government officially expressed its condolences to the Cooper and Baruch families, along with the families of all the kidnapping victims, and urged Hamas to comply with its obligations to international mediators and facilitate the repatriation of the deceased within the framework of the US-brokered ceasefire. The release of these two bodies by the Palestinian terrorist group leaves at least 11 Israeli hostages still in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas's armed wing, known as the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Tuesday that it had found the bodies of Cooper and Baruch, pledging to return one of them. However, following Israeli airstrikes that began Wednesday afternoon, the organization postponed the handover, citing the conditions created by the attacks.
According to the Islamist militia, the search for Cooper lasted 13 days in a tunnel in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, until his body was found. Cooper died at the age of 85 while in captivity; while Israeli media outlets such as Yedioth Ahronoth reported that he died when the tunnel collapsed due to bombing, other accounts maintain that he may have been killed by his captors.
Sahar Baruch, 25, also lost her life in Gaza. The Israeli army acknowledged in January 2024 that her death occurred during a failed rescue operation, though it could not determine whether Baruch was killed by Hamas or friendly fire on December 8, 2023. Since the ceasefire began, Islamist fighters have returned 15 of the 28 bodies agreed upon in the truce, citing the difficulties in recovering remains from the ruins in Gaza.
In previous instances, Hamas handed over bodies that did not match any of the remaining hostages. On Monday, the militant group returned the remains of a deceased person whose body had already been recovered in 2023, which, according to the Israeli government, constituted a violation of the ceasefire. This situation, along with the death of an Israeli soldier in an alleged Islamist attack in the southern Gaza Strip, prompted a series of Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday that resulted in the deaths of at least 110 people, according to the UN.
The Israeli army reported that the recent attacks on Khan Younis and other areas of southern Gaza targeted terrorist infrastructure that, according to them, posed a threat to troops.
In response to recent tensions, Prime Minister Netanyahu warned at a public event that Israel would respond harshly if Hamas continued to violate the ceasefire. “If Hamas continues to openly violate the truce, it will suffer powerful reprisals, as happened the day before yesterday,” the prime minister stated.
The truce, established on October 10, 2023, seeks to gradually end a conflict described as the deadliest and most destructive in the numerous confrontations between Israel and Hamas. While negotiations and international mediation efforts continue, both sides maintain opposing positions and accuse each other of violating the agreed-upon conditions regarding the release of hostages and respect for the lives of civilians.
