KHAN YUNIS: Gaza’s Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday said it had received the bodies of 15 Palestinian prisoners under the US-brokered ceasefire exchange deal.
“The tenth batch of the bodies of Palestinian martyrs has arrived at Nasser Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip, numbering 15 martyrs,” the hospital said in a statement, noting that 285 bodies were received under the agreement in total.
They were returned in exchange for the latest hostage body handed back from Gaza on Tuesday, that of Israeli-American soldier Itay Chen.
Under the terms of the US-brokered agreement in effect since Oct 10, Israel returns 15 bodies of Palestinians for every body it receives of an Israeli hostage who had been held in Gaza.
At the start of the truce, Hamas held 48 hostages in Gaza – 20 alive and 28 deceased.
The fighters have since released all the surviving captives, as well as 21 of the deceased’s remains.
Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased hostages, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza’s rubble.
The group has repeatedly called on mediators and the Red Cross to provide it with the necessary equipment and personnel to recover the bodies.–AFP
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