Israel's forensic center says still working to identify bodies of three hostages
Israel's national forensic center said Thursday that it was still working to identify the bodies of three hostages returned earlier in the day by Hamas, after verifying the identity of a fourth.
'We have been working since this morning to provide definitive answers to the families. The staff of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine continues the identification process,' Chen Kugel, the center's director, said in a televised statement after confirming the fourth body was that of elderly peace activist Oded Lifshitz.
Kugel said that Lifshitz, 83, had been murdered while in captivity more than a year ago.
Hostages who returned to Israel during the first ceasefire deal in November 2023 reported being held captive with Lifshitz, a founding member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, during their first month in Gaza.
While Kugel did not mention by name the three additional hostages that were still in the process of being identified, Hamas said it had returned the remains of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, also taken hostage from their home in Nir Oz.
The four bodies were handed over under the first phase of a ceasefire that took effect on January 19. So far militants have freed 19 living Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.
Another six living hostages are to be released on Saturday, while four more bodies are to be handed over next week.
Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Prior to Thursday's handover, there were 70 hostages in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
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