‘Israel’ says receives bodies of three more Gaza captives

• Hamas's military wing announced it will hand over the bodies of three ‘Israeli’ captives.
• The bodies were found in a tunnel route in the southern Gaza Strip.

‘Israel’ said on Sunday it had received the remains of three additional captives from Hamas as part of the ongoing prisoner exchange under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement for Gaza.

Despite occasional flare-ups, a fragile truce has been held in Gaza since October 10 under a deal focused on the return of all ‘Israeli’ captives, both living and dead.

"Israel has received, through the Red Cross, the coffins of three fallen hostages that were handed over to IDF and Shin Bet forces inside the Gaza Strip," the prime minister's office said.

An ‘Israeli’ health ministry spokesperson said later that their bodies had arrived at a national forensic centre "for identification and investigation into the circumstances and cause of death".

Experts from the centre would then meet with the families of the deceased "to discuss and elaborate on the findings", the spokesperson said.

Hamas's armed wing said it had found the remains earlier on Sunday "along the route of one of the tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip".

Number of captives 

Hamas had been holding 48 captives in Gaza, including 20 confirmed alive, when the ceasefire was announced.

Since the start of the truce, Hamas has released the surviving captives and begun handing over the remains of 28 deceased captives.

Of the latter, it has so far returned 17 -- including 15 ‘Israelis’, one Thai national, and one Nepali.

‘Israel’ has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many remains are buried beneath Gaza's rubble.

It has repeatedly called on mediators and the Red Cross to provide it with the necessary equipment and personnel to recover the bodies.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement that the handover on Sunday showed that the group "was making every effort to return the bodies as quickly as possible".

An ‘Israeli’ campaign group representing the families of captives urged the government to act decisively to ensure all the deceased are brought home.

"The Hostage Families demand that the prime minister act with determination and firmness in order to bring about the immediate realisation of Hamas's commitments under the agreement and to return all of the deceased hostages to Israel's hands," the “Hostages and Missing Families Forum” said.