JERUSALEM, Oct. 14 — A senior Israeli government official said on Tuesday the country will “intensify” pressure on Hamas until the group releases the remaining bodies of deceased hostages still held in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas traded accusations of violating the ceasefire agreement, now in its fifth day, over Hamas’s failure to hand over all the missing bodies and Israeli fire that killed at least six people in Gaza on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Israel’s state-owned Kan TV reported that security and government officials were discussing possible measures, including keeping the Rafah crossing, a key route for aid from Egypt to Gaza, closed or limiting the delivery of humanitarian aid until Hamas releases the missing bodies.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said all four bodies handed over by Hamas on Monday had been identified at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv.
It disclosed the identities of two of them, while the names of the other two have not yet been cleared for publication by their families.
The two identified were Bipin Joshi, a Nepali agricultural student, and Guy Illouz, who was seized from the Nova music festival.
According to Israeli intelligence, Illouz was injured and abducted alive during the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, and later died in captivity “after not receiving proper medical treatment,” the military said. He was 26 years old.
Bipin Joshi was abducted at age 23 from a shelter in Kibbutz Alumim. The military said he is believed to have been killed in captivity during the first months of the war.
Final conclusions regarding the cause of death “will be determined after the completion of the examination of the circumstances of death by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine,” the military said.
The release of four bodies by Hamas has angered Israel, which said that under the terms of the agreement, the group was required to hand over all 28 bodies held in Gaza by Monday.
Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons at the Prime Minister’s Office, said in an update to the hostages’ families that “pressure on Hamas to continue and complete the return of the bodies is ongoing and will intensify.”
Hirsch said the issue was discussed on Monday during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, who was then on a brief visit to Israel.
He added that the matter “is also being handled with other international parties and continues through our engagement with the mediators, even at this very moment.”
The Israeli military said Hamas “is required to fulfill its part of the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the hostages to their families for proper burial.”
The return of the bodies came after the transfer of the last 20 surviving hostages from Gaza to Israel and the release of about 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners, marking a key phase in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal. (Xinhua)
