By Evgenia Filimianova
Israel is set to receive the body of another Israeli hostage after the Hamas terrorist group said it will transfer the remains on Oct. 20.
The group said on the Telegram channel of Al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas-run media outlet, that it will hand over the body of the hostage as part of the prisoner exchange deal with Israel.
Hamas said the body was recovered in the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening. The Red Cross is preparing for the handover at 8 p.m. local time, according to The Times of Israel.
The Israel–Hamas cease-fire agreement, brokered by the United States and mediators from Israel, Egypt, and Qatar, requires Hamas to return all Israeli hostages.
Bodies of 16 hostages are yet to be returned by Hamas under the first phase of the peace plan. One of the dead, Lt. Hadar Goldin, was kidnapped and killed by Hamas in 2014, two hours after Hamas agreed to a cease-fire, according to the Hadar Goldin Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit set up by his family to work on securing the return of his body to Israel for burial.
In a press briefing on Monday, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, Shosh Bedrosian said that Hamas “continues to make the excuse they cannot locate them.”
“Hamas dragged our hostages into Gaza and either murdered them on Oct. 7 or during captivity, with the sole exception of a soldier taken in 2014. No one misplaces people they kidnapped,” she said.
The announcement by Hamas follows a number of recent violations of the ceasefire between Israel and the group. On Sunday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck Hamas targets in the enclave, in response to alleged Hamas violations of the U.S.-brokered peace deal.
On Monday, the IDF reported breaches of the “yellow line” that marks Israel’s agreed withdrawal limit.
“IDF troops in the Southern Command are deployed in the area in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the military said in a statement.
Bedrosian said that Israel will continue to uphold and enforce the cease-fire agreement.
“The state of Israel will not accept any violations of the cease fire in the Gaza Strip, and the IDF will respond with force to any violation that endangers the security of our soldiers and its citizens,” she added.
Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday urged anyone located beyond the yellow line to evacuate immediately.
“Anyone who remains in the area will be a target for attack without any further warning, and Hamas leaders will bear responsibility for any incident,” he said. “This directive is intended to allow IDF forces to operate freely and immediately against any threat. The protection of IDF soldiers is a top priority, and we will take all necessary measures to ensure this.”
Despite the alleged violations of the cease-fire agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the cease-fire remain in force, adding that he believed the alleged attacks by Hamas were carried out by “some rebels within” rather than by the group’s leadership.
Key U.S. figures, who helped broker the peace deal, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, met with Netanyahu on Monday, Bedrosian confirmed. She added that U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, will also be visiting Israel for a few days and meeting with Netanyahu.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Monday that more than 68,000 people have died in Gaza since the conflict began two years ago. The figure does not distinguish between fighters and civilians and includes some deaths from natural causes. The Epoch Times cannot verify these figures.
Dan M. Berger contributed to this report.
