Palestinians watch as machinery and workers from Egypt search the rubble of damaged buildings for the bodies of hostages in the Hamad City area of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza Strip on Monday. The remains of three returned Friday were not hostages, Israel said Saturday. Photo by Imad Haitham/EPA/
Nov. 1 (UPI) — Hamas handed over the remains of three people, but they don’t match any of the dead hostages, Israeli officials said Saturday.
Forensic testing in Tel Aviv was conducted after the Red Cross received the remains in Gaza and gave them to Israel on Friday night.
They do not belong to the remaining 11 hostages still being held in Gaza, the Times of Israel and Fox News reported.
Al-Qassam Brigades said “the enemy refused to receive the samples and requested to receive the bodies for examination.”
Since the cease-fire began on Oct. 10, Hamas has returned the remains of 17 hostages.
Although the truce agreement required Hamas to return all deceased hostages within 72 hours, it returned only four of the 28 bodies. Twenty living hostages were also released at the time.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross does not take part in locating the remains. In accordance with international humanitarian law, it is the responsibility of the parties to locate, collect, and return the dead,” ICRC said in a statement obtained by the Jerusalem Post.
On Thursday, the bodies of hostages Sahar Baruch and Amiram Cooper were returned to Israel.
Hamas said they were ready to continue to work on “extracting the bodies of enemy captives inside the Yellow Line. That area of the Strip is 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 terror group knows where the remaining remains are but is stalling, Israel officials say.
On Friday, Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinian prisoners as part of the cease-fire deal.