Hamas has handed over the bodies of two more Israeli captives, condemning the occupying regime for repeatedly violating the ceasefire agreement and obstructing the terms of the truce.
In an early Sunday post on X, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the bodies were received via the Red Cross and sent to a forensic institute for identification.
The Israeli military later reported that one of the bodies was confirmed to be that of Ronen Tomi Engel.
The handover marks the latest development in last weekend’s truce deal with Israel, which ended the regime’s two-year-long genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
The first phase of the US-brokered agreement, which came into effect at noon local time on October 10, required Hamas to release 20 surviving Israeli captives and 28 bodies of dead Israelis in exchange for Israel freeing nearly 2,000 Palestinian abductees and transferring the bodies of 360 Palestinians killed during the Gaza onslaught.
So far, Hamas has returned all 20 living captives and the remains of 12 dead Israelis, while Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinians, who were unlawfully detained by the regime, and handed over 135 Palestinian bodies.
On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said that the Rafah border crossing, Gaza’s sole gateway to the outside world, will stay closed “until further notice” and that its reopening would be considered based on the return of the remains of the captives.
In a statement, Hamas said the continued closure of the Rafah crossing “blocks the entry of specialized equipment needed to search for those missing under the rubble and prevents forensic teams and tools,” leading to “significant delays” in the retrieval and transfer of captive remains.
The resistance group added that the criminal regime “continues to fabricate flimsy pretexts” to not follow through on its commitments to the ceasefire deal.
It also denounced Israel’s post-ceasefire attacks against Palestinians, which has killed 38 people and injured 143 others.
Meanwhile, human rights monitors and medical experts condemned the condition of the Palestinian bodies handed over by Israel to Gaza, reporting that many showed signs of abuse, torture, and possible organ theft.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) said that Palestinian bodies"bore clear marks of hanging, rope imprints around their necks, injuries from close-range gunfire, bound hands and feet with plastic restraints, and blindfolds."
“Some bodies were crushed under tank tracks, while others showed severe signs of physical torture, fractures, burns, and deep wounds,” the Geneva-based rights group added.
Clear evidence of brutal torture: Condition of Palestinian bodies released from Israeli prisons demands urgent int’l investigationhttps://t.co/C01A9GHB68
— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) October 18, 2025
Israel unleashed a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out the historic Al- Aqsa Storm operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Israel accepted the Gaza ceasefire deal after two years following the failure to achieve its declared objectives of eliminating Hamas and freeing all captives, despite killing 68,116 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 170,200 others.
