Israel’s Ministry of Religious Services is prepared to receive the remains of “between one and 28" slain hostages as part of the agreement with Hamas in Gaza, director-general Yehudah Avidan said on Sunday.
Despite expectations, no one yet knows how many hostages’ bodies will be handed over by the terrorist group before the deadline of 6 a.m. on Monday, Avidan told Kan Reshet Bet radio.
A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross will carry out an initial identification process after receiving the bodies, according to Avidan, after which the remains will be taken to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv for final examination.
“That’s where the entire complex identification process will begin,” the director-general explained, noting that the institute is in possession of intelligence files for each of the fallen to streamline their identification.
Avidan told Reshet Bet that most of the 28 murdered hostages have already been declared dead by a special committee led by the Chief Rabbinate, allowing widows to remarry in accordance with Jewish law.
“There’s no chance of error,” he stressed, explaining that the committee acted solely on solid evidence provided by Israeli intelligence agencies.
Noting that some families already observed the seven-day mourning period known as shivah, Avidan told Reshet Bet that the Religious Services Ministry would assist the families in holding a “new funeral.”
The ministry, in cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police and other agencies, is in constant contact with the families and tries to fulfill their wishes regarding the final respects to their loved ones. “We ultimately try to give the family what it deserves,” he told Reshet Bet.
Avidan said his worst fear is that Hamas terrorists will claim that some of the bodies cannot be found, similar to the case of Ron Arad, the Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer who went missing in action in Lebanon 39 years ago.
(Israeli officials told reporters on Thursday that an international task force would be established to locate the remains of captives who are not found in the coming days as part of the ceasefire deal.)
Avidan added that in the past, explosives have been found with remains released by Hamas. “We don’t trust them with anything,” he said.
Under the U.S.-brokered agreement approved by the Israeli Cabinet on Friday, the Jewish state is to receive, by a revised deadline of 6 a.m. on Monday, the 20 living hostages and remains of 28 others.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday spoke with Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, his point man for the captives and missing, and told him that Jerusalem was “prepared and ready to immediately receive all of our hostages,” according to a readout from the premier’s office.
