Hospital officials in Gaza say Israel has handed over the bodies of 30 Palestinians

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hospital officials in Gaza say Israel has handed over the bodies of 30 Palestinians, a day after Palestinian militants in Gaza turned over the remains of two hostages to Israel.

Officials at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis confirmed receiving the bodies but did not immediately say what state they were in or identify them.

The exchange of Palestinian remains for hostage remains is the latest indication that the fraught Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement is moving forward, despite deadly Israeli strikes on Gaza this week.

Before Friday’s release, Israel had returned the bodies of 195 Palestinians to authorities in Gaza without providing details on their identities. It is unclear if the bodies returned by Israel were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack, died in Israeli custody as detainees or were recovered from Gaza by troops during the war.

Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify the bodies without access to DNA kits.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late Thursday that the remains returned by Palestinian militants had been confirmed as those of Sahar Baruch and Amiram Cooper, both taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that set off the war.

Hamas has now returned the remains of 17 hostages since the start of the ceasefire, with 11 others still in Gaza and set to be turned over under the terms of the agreement.

Baruch was readying to pursue an electrical engineering degree when he was taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri. His brother, Idan, was killed in the attack. Three months into Sahar’s captivity, the Israeli military said he was killed during an attempted rescue mission. He was 25.

Cooper was an economist and one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz. He was captured along with his wife, Nurit, who was released after 17 days. In June 2024 Israeli officials confirmed that he had been killed in Gaza. He was 84.