In an ongoing process tied to last month’s fragile ceasefire agreement, officials at Gaza’s largest functioning hospital announced on Wednesday that they had received the remains of 15 additional Palestinians from Israeli custody. This exchange, a central component of the initial phase of the US-brokered deal, proceeded despite both Israel and Hamas leveling accusations of violations against one another.
The bodies were returned to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. This handover occurred a day after Palestinian militants in Gaza returned the remains of Itay Chen, an Israeli soldier who was killed in the October 7, 2023, attack that initiated the war. Following notification of Chen’s return, his family expressed their grief, calling the development bittersweet, and demanded a comprehensive inquiry into the circumstances that allowed the initial attack to happen, according to a statement released by Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The Complexities of the Exchange
The exchanges are the key feature of the initial phase of the agreement, which mandates that Hamas return all Israeli hostage remains as quickly as possible. Israel has been returning 15 Palestinian bodies each time the remains of an Israeli hostage are returned from Gaza.
Since the agreement was brokered last month, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has transported a total of 285 bodies held in Israeli custody back to Gaza. However, health officials in Gaza report that the process of identifying the remains is highly complex due to a severe shortage of DNA testing kits. Israel has not publicly disclosed the total number of bodies it is holding or where they were recovered.
On the other side, Hamas has attributed the slow pace of returning Israeli remains—handing over only one to three bodies every few days—to the widespread devastation and destruction across the coastal enclave.
Allegations and Status of the Deal
The ceasefire deal has continued despite mutual accusations of breaches. Hamas previously returned 20 living Israeli hostages on October 13, and has since returned the remains of 21 bodies. Israeli officials have criticized the process, alleging that Hamas has, in some cases, handed over partial remains or staged the discovery of bodies, pushing for the returns to be expedited. Israel has also stated that some of the returned remains were not confirmed to be those of hostages.
Hamas, in turn, has accused Israel of opening fire on civilians and restricting the necessary flow of humanitarian aid into the territory. While the number of casualties has dropped since the ceasefire took effect, health officials in Gaza—who do not differentiate between civilians and militants—continue to report deaths from strikes, and Israel has also confirmed the deaths of its soldiers.
The agreement’s full implementation is contingent on the return of all Israeli hostage remains. Only once this initial phase is complete will the deal advance to subsequent parts, which include the call for creating an international stabilization force, the composition and mandate of which are still being debated by diplomats and the international community.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking in Doha on Tuesday, emphasized the need for international legitimacy, stating, “What we believe is that whatever entity that is created in Gaza should have the legitimacy of a mandate from the Security Council.”
The fragile agreement aims to de-escalate the war that began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which claimed approximately 1,200 lives and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage. Israel’s military response has since resulted in the deaths of more than 68,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry figures, which independent experts generally view as reliable. Israel has disputed these figures without providing an alternative count and has denied accusations, including from a U.N. commission, of committing genocide in Gaza.