"Al-Qassam" hands over the bodies of two prisoners from Gaza to the Red

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), handed over the bodies of two more Israeli prisoners on Saturday evening, after delivering several bodies in the past days as part of an agreement to cease hostilities in Gaza and exchange prisoners.

Israeli media reported that the International Red Cross received the two bodies from the Al-Qassam Brigades and will hand them over to the Israeli occupation army.

Earlier, Al-Qassam announced the retrieval of two bodies of Israeli prisoners from the Gaza Strip, as part of efforts to locate the remaining bodies to complete a prisoner exchange deal with the Israeli occupation, within the framework of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

In a brief statement, Al-Qassam said: "As part of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, the Martyr Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades will hand over two bodies of prisoners from the occupation that were retrieved today in the Gaza Strip, at 10 PM Gaza time."

Hamas confirmed last Thursday evening its commitment to the ceasefire agreement with the Israeli occupation and its eagerness to implement it and deliver all remaining bodies of Israelis, but clarified that the process may take some time.

Hamas stated in a statement: "We affirm our commitment to the agreement and our eagerness to implement it and to deliver all remaining bodies (of Israeli prisoners)."

On October 10, the first phase of an agreement between Hamas and the Israeli occupation to cease hostilities and exchange prisoners came into effect, based on a plan by U.S. President Donald Trump to stop the war in Gaza.

In implementation of the agreement, Hamas released twenty living Israeli prisoners and handed over the bodies of 10 out of 28, most of whom are Israelis.

In return, the occupation released 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,718 others arrested from the Gaza Strip after October 8, 2023, while more than 10,000 Palestinians remain in its prisons.

In its statement, Hamas confirmed that the return of the bodies of Israeli prisoners may take some time, noting that "some are buried in tunnels destroyed by the occupation, and others are still under the rubble of buildings that were bombed and demolished."

Hamas pointed out that "the Nazi occupation army that killed these prisoners is the same that caused their burial under the rubble," asserting that the bodies of the prisoners it managed to reach were handed over directly.

Hamas emphasized that it needs equipment and devices to remove the rubble, explaining that this equipment "is currently unavailable due to the occupation's prevention of its entry."

Hamas held the Israeli government responsible for any delay in delivering the bodies, stating that it "obstructs and prevents the provision of the necessary means for that."

In a separate statement, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem expressed his astonishment at what he called "the world's lamentation over the bodies of a number of Israeli soldiers," while "turning a blind eye to the bodies of tens of thousands of our Palestinian martyrs under the rubble, or those that have evaporated, or those that the criminal occupation prevented from being buried and were devoured by dogs."

According to the latest figures, the Ministry of Health in Gaza received the bodies of 135 Palestinians released by the occupation as part of the exchange deal, and these bodies returned without any identification of their owners, while the ministry is working to identify them using primitive methods.

In the genocide launched by the occupation army on the Gaza Strip since October 8, 2023, which lasted for two years, 67,967 Palestinians were martyred, and 170,179 others were injured, most of them children and women, causing a famine that claimed the lives of 463 Palestinians, including 157 children.