The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist groups said on Thursday that they would return to Israel at 8 p.m. local time the body of a hostage held in the Gaza Strip.
The joint statement by the terror groups claimed the remains were “found today” in the Khan Yunis area of the southern Gaza Strip.
Hamas has previously backtracked on returning hostage bodies, in addition to sending misidentified remains back to the Jewish state.
Four more bodies are still being held in Gaza, those of three Israelis—Meny Godard, Sgt. Ran Gvili and Dror Or—and of one Thai citizen, Sudthisak Rinthalak, who was working in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is funded and directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is believed to be holding at least two of the remaining bodies, Israel’s Kan Reshet Bet radio reported on Monday.
The Hamas-PIJ statement came just hours after the Qatari Al Araby Television Network reported that Hamas terrorists, accompanied by International Committee of the Red Cross teams, had returned to the northern Gaza neighborhood of Zeitoun to search for remains.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage-release agreement that went into effect last month, the terrorist organization committed to returning for burial all 28 bodies it was holding captive, on Oct. 13.
However, Hamas has slow-walked the return of the deceased hostages, reportedly to avoid its disarmament, which is set to take place in the second phase of the deal with a deployment of international forces.
On Oct. 28, the Israel Defense Forces released for publication drone footage showing Hamas terrorists staging the “recovery” of hostage remains in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The footage showed Hamas throwing remains out of a window into a pit and covering it with dirt in front of what appeared to be an ICRC team.
The Red Cross denied the sequence of events in a statement to JNS, calling it “unacceptable that a fake recovery was staged” by Hamas.
