JERUSALEM (AP) — Health officials in Gaza say Israel has handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians.
Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson at the Gaza Health Ministry, told the AP that Nasser Hospital in Gaza received the bodies Monday morning.
It comes a day after Palestinian militants returned to Israel the remains of three Israeli troops taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel
said on Monday the remains of three hostages returned from Gaza the previous night belong to soldiers who were killed in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war. The positive identification marked another step forward for the tenuous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 20 hostages, with eight now remaining in Gaza.
The latest hostages’ return came as Israel was shaken by a political scandal involving the former legal chief for Israel’s military, who was arrested overnight after she admitted to leaking a video of Israeli soldiers assaulting a Palestinian detainee, according to media reports. A former chief military prosecutor was also arrested, the reports said.
The two were to appear in court on Monday. The authorities did not immediately comment.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified the three hostages returned as Capt. Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli, Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel and Col. Assaf Hamami. A Hamas statement earlier said their remains were found on Sunday in a tunnel in southern Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he had spoken with the family of American-Israeli Omer Neutra, describing their relief and heartbreak. “They were thrilled, in one sense, but in another sense, obviously, it’s not too great,” Trump said.
Militants have released one or two bodies every few days. Israel has urged faster progress, and in certain cases it has said the remains were not those of any hostage. Hamas has said the work is complicated by widespread devastation.
Israel in turn has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians for each Israeli hostage returned. Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify bodies without access to DNA kits.
Only 75 of the 225 Palestinian bodies returned since the ceasefire began have been identified, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Ministry has posted photos of the remains online and used projectors to magnify the images onto the walls of Nasser hospital, all in the hope that families will recognize them
The arrest of Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the former military legal chief, came just days after she issued a stunning admission that she was responsible for leaking a video showing Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee and resigned from office.
The arrest followed a frantic search Sunday along the Tel Aviv beach for Tomer-Yerushalmi, after her family raised concerns for her safety and police found her abandoned car along the coastline, reported Israel’s Channel 12. Police said she was found soon after the search began.
Former chief military prosecutor Col. Matan Solomesh was also arrested, reported Israel’s Army Radio.
The American-Israeli, Neutra, was 21 when he died. In the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, he was abducted with the rest of his tank crew. In December 2024, the military announced Neutra had been killed in the attack that started the war.
Neutra's parents were a regular presence at protests in the U.S. and Israel, and addressed the Republican National Convention last year.
The militants took the body of Daniel, 19, from his tank, along with three others. He is survived by his parents and twin sister.
Hamami commanded Israel's southern brigade in the Gaza division and died early on Oct. 7, 2023, in fighting to defend Kibbutz Nirim.
According to Israeli media, Hamami was the first person in the military to declare that Israel was at war, less than 10 minutes after the attack began. Hamami and two of his soldiers were killed and their bodies were taken to Gaza. The other two soldiers’ remains were retrieved in July 2024. Hamami is survived by his wife and three children.
The exchange of hostage remains for Palestinian bodies has been the central part of the initial phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The 20-point plan includes the formation of an international stabilization force of Arab and other partners that would work with Egypt and Jordan on securing Gaza’s borders and ensure the ceasefire is respected.
Multiple nations have shown interest in taking part in a peacekeeping force but have called for a clear U.N. Security Council mandate before committing troops.
Other difficult questions include Hamas’ disarmament and the governance of a postwar Gaza, as well as when and how humanitarian aid will be increased.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will visit Jordan on Monday and call on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. She is expected to visit a warehouse where British aid remains stuck waiting to enter Gaza.
Ahead of the visit, Cooper said that “humanitarian support is desperately needed and the people of Gaza cannot afford to wait.”
“Following the U.S.-led peace process and the plans for a substantial increase in aid for Gaza, we need an increase in crossings, an acceleration in lifting of restrictions and more agencies able to go in with aid,” Cooper said.
Cooper also announced that Britain will provide an extra 6 million pounds ($7.9 million) of humanitarian support for Gaza, provided by the UN Population Fund.
The two-year war has been the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. It started with the Hamas-led 2023 attack that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostages.
Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 68,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.
Israel, which has denied accusations by a U.N. commission of inquiry and others of committing genocide in Gaza, has disputed the ministry’s figures without providing a contradicting toll.
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Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel; Jill Lawless in London and Aamer Madhani in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.
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Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
