Al-Qassam intends to hand over the bodies of 3 Israeli prisoners this evening.

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced this evening, Sunday, its intention to hand over the bodies of 3 Israeli prisoners found inside one of the tunnels south of the Gaza Strip, as part of a prisoner exchange deal.

The brigades stated in a statement that they "will hand over the bodies of three occupation prisoners that were found this afternoon in the path of one of the tunnels south of the sector, at eight o'clock in Gaza time (17:00 UTC)."

This development comes days after the movement handed over the remains of 3 other Israelis, who were later found not to be among the prisoners missing in the sector, according to Israeli media reports.

In this context, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported from security sources that teams from the International Red Cross and members of Hamas conducted two field rounds today in areas under the control of the Israeli army inside Gaza, in Khan Younis to the south and the Shuja'iyya neighborhood to the north, searching for the remains of Israeli prisoners, with official approval from the political level in Tel Aviv.

The authority indicated that Israel is preparing to receive the bodies of deceased captives this evening, considering that Hamas's behavior "does not constitute a violation of the existing agreement regarding the exchange of prisoners."

The Israeli occupation army currently controls what is known as the "yellow line," which extends over about half of the area of the Gaza Strip, from its north to the outskirts of Rafah in the south.

Since the ceasefire agreement came into effect last October, Hamas has handed over 20 living Israeli prisoners and the remains of 19 others, while the movement asserts that retrieving the remaining bodies "takes time due to the extensive destruction caused by the war."

According to the government media office in Gaza, around 9,500 Palestinians are still missing under the rubble of the destruction left by the Israeli war that lasted two years and resulted in the deaths of more than 68,000 people, most of whom were women and children, and injured about 170,000, while more than 90% of the civilian infrastructure in the sector was destroyed.