Palestinian militants hand over remains of two more hostages to Red
Cross in Gaza
[October 31, 2025]
By JULIA FRANKEL and WAFAA SHURAFA
JERUSALEM (AP) — Hospital officials in Gaza say that Israel has handed
over the bodies of 30 Palestinians.
Friday's handover comes a day after Palestinian militants in Gaza turned
over the remains of two hostages to Israel.
Israel’s military said Thursday that Palestinian militants handed over
the remains of two more hostages, in the latest indication that the
fragile ceasefire agreement is moving forward despite Israeli strikes on
Gaza this week.
The two sets of remains were given to the Red Cross in Gaza, then
transported into Israel by troops and taken to the National Institute of
Forensic Medicine for identification, the Israeli military said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said late Thursday that the
remains 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.
In return, Israel has returned the bodies of 195 Palestinians to
authorities in Gaza without providing details on their identities. It is
unclear if they 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.
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.
Overnight strikes injure 40
Officials in southern Gaza said Thursday that at least 40 people had
been injured in overnight strikes, after Israel declared the ceasefire
was back on Wednesday morning.
Mohammad Saar, head of the nursing department at Nasser Hospital in
southern Gaza, said it received 40 people wounded in overnight strikes
on Khan Younis.
The Israeli army said it carried out strikes on “terrorist
infrastructure that posed a threat to the troops” in Khan Younis. The
area in southern Gaza is under the control of the Israeli military.
After strikes earlier this week killed more than 100 people, Israel said
it was retaliating for the shooting and killing of one of its soldiers
in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu also said that Hamas had violated provisions in the deal
concerning the handover of remains of hostages.
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Red Cross vehicles carrying the bodies of two people believed to be
deceased hostages handed over by Hamas make their way toward the
Kissufim border crossing with Israel, to be transferred to Israeli
authorities, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct.
30, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Hamas denied any involvement in the deadly shooting and, in turn,
accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony for military commanders in
southern Israel Thursday, Netanyahu warned, “If Hamas continues to
blatantly violate the ceasefire, it will experience powerful
strikes, as it did the day before yesterday and yesterday.”
He said Israel would “act as needed” to remove “immediate danger” to
its forces.
“At the end of the day, Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be
demilitarized. If foreign forces do this, all the better. And if
they don’t, we will do it.”
The guarantors of the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal have told Hamas
that Israel will resume, and they will not object to, military
strikes on targets within the Israeli-occupied zone of the
Palestinian territory after a deadline for militants to leave the
area expired Thursday.
A senior U.S. official said that in messages passed to Hamas by
Egypt and Qatar on Wednesday the group was told its remaining
fighters in the yellow zone had 24 hours to leave or face Israeli
strikes. That deadline expired Thursday, after which the official
said “Israel will enforce the ceasefire and engage Hamas targets
behind the yellow line.”
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private
diplomatic conversations.
The ceasefire, which began Oct. 10, is aimed at winding down a war
that is by far the deadliest and most destructive of those ever
fought between Israel and Hamas.
The war was triggered by the October 2023 attack on Israel by
Hamas-led militants, who killed about 1,200 people and took 251
others hostage.
In the two years since, Israel’s military offensive has killed more
than 68,600 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health
Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and
combatants. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government
and is staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records
viewed as generally reliable by independent experts. Israel, which
some international critics have accused of committing genocide in
Gaza, has disputed those figures without providing a contradicting
toll.
___
Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah,
Gaza Strip. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington
contributed to this report.
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