Israel receives body of hostage held by Hamas

Alsharq Tribune-Ahmed Essam 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) received from the Red Cross a coffin of an unidentified Israeli hostage held in Gaza, the IDF said early Saturday in a statement.

In a post on X, the IDF said that the coffin, escorted by IDF troops, crossed the border into Israel on its way to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for identification procedures.

The IDF urged the public "to act with sensitivity and wait for official identification, which will first be communicated to the families of the deceased hostages."

This was the 10th body of an Israeli hostage that Hamas has handed over this week, out of 28 bodies it is obliged to return under the first phase of the Gaza peace plan.

Hamas on Monday released 20 live Israeli hostages who had been held in Gaza for two years.