The Israeli military says one of four bodies handed over by Hamas on Tuesday is not that of any of the hostages who were held in Gaza, adding to strain on the fragile ceasefire to end the two-year war.
Separately, forensic experts in Gaza on Wednesday started identifying 45 bodies of Palestinians that Israel handed over to the Red Cross the previous day without identification. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the bodies were those of people who died in Israeli prisons or bodies taken from Gaza by Israeli troops.
Meanwhile, the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza has resumed after a two-day break. The Egyptian Red Crescent said 400 trucks carrying food, fuel, and medical supplies were bound for the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, while Israel and Hamas argue over the slow return of the bodies of deceased hostages.
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Bodies of more Palestinians returned to Gaza
Israel has transferred the bodies of more Palestinians to Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal, according to officials at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.
An Associated Press journalist at the facility saw three trucks carrying the bodies arriving at the hospital.
Bodies recovered from under rubble are brought to Gaza hospitals
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Wednesday the bodies of 19 people have been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours.
They include 16 bodies that were recovered from under the rubble, the ministry said in its daily report. Hospitals also received 35 wounded.
That has brought the death toll from the Israel-Hamas war to 67,938 since Oct. 7, 2023, the ministry said. Another 169,638 have been wounded, it said.
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The ministry said it didn’t add the 45 bodies that Israel transferred to Gaza on Tuesday to its tally.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of the casualties were women and children.
EU says it's ready to deploy humanitarian mission
The European Union said on Wednesday it is on standby to deploy a long-standing humanitarian mission, known as EUBAM, at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza if conditions on the ground improve.
“EUBAM remains on standby to deploy to the Rafah crossing point in support of the Gaza peace plan as soon as conditions allow,” said Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the European Commission. He did not elaborate on those conditions. “We remain on standby and we stand ready to deploy at short notice.”
The European Border Assistance Mission in Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border began in 2005.
The EU, which has provided key support for the Palestinian Authority, pledged to help flood Gaza with humanitarian aid. It said it could extend a police support program already operating in the West Bank to Gaza to buttress a stabilization force called for in current peace plan from U.S. President Donald Trump. Outrage over the war has riven the 27-nation bloc and pushed relations between Israel and the EU to a historic low.