Israel Confirms The Body Of The Hostage Returned Is An IDF Personnel, One Of Which Is Colonel

IDF officials pay tribute to the coffins of Colonel Assana Hamami, Captain Omer Neutra and Chief of Staff Oz Daniel who were repatriated by Hamas. (Source: IDF)

JAKARTA - The Israeli military confirmed the Palestinian militant group Hamas had returned the bodies of three hostages in the Gaza Strip on Sunday night and confirmed their identities on Monday morning.

The three bodies who were repatriated were confirmed as Colonel Asymptomatic Hamami, Captain Omer Maxim Neutra and Chief of Staff Oz Daniel.

Israeli Representative Defense Forces (IDF) has notified the families of the three soldiers that their bodies had been returned to Israel by Hamas, following the completion of efforts to identify by forensic experts, quoted from The Times of Israel November 3.

With this repatriation, the bodies of the eight hostages are estimated to be still in the Gaza Strip.

According to Hamas' statement, the hostages' bodies were found on Sunday morning from a tunnel. In the statement, the Hamas group published an image showing a body bag bearing Hamami's name, while the other two were not named.

The group handed over the coffin to representatives of the Red Cross in southern Gaza, which then escorted the body to IDF forces in Gaza.

Upon arrival in Israel, the bodies were taken to the Abu Kabir forensic agency in Tel Aviv for identification.

The ceasefire mediated Together by Egypt, Qatar, the United States and Turkey has eased much of the fighting, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the rubble of their homes in Gaza. Israel has withdrawn troops from positions in cities and more aid has been allowed in.

Hamas released all 20 surviving hostages who were held in Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime prisoners detained by Israel.

Hamas also agreed, based on the ceasefire, to hand over the bodies of 28 hostages who died in exchange for the bodies of 360 Palestinian militants who died in the war. As of Monday, Hamas had returned 20 hostages' bodies.

Israel says Hamas was too slow in repatriating the hostages' bodies. Instead, Hamas said they were working as quickly as possible in difficult conditions.

The return of hostages is just one of the disputes that has hampered the full implementation of the US-brokered ceasefire that has been in effect since October 10.

Hours earlier, while speaking at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were still two bags of Hamas left in Israel's territory in Gaza, one in Rafah and one in Khan Younis.

"They will accept it," he promised.

"Hamas' efforts to deceive us, the US and the world" are really sad, he said.

"They will not succeed, and we will gradually repatriate all of our hostages. This is our commitment," he said.

"My directive is firm," Netanyahu said, stressing the protection of troops in Gaza is his priority. "If there is an attempt to injure our soldiers, we will attack those who attack and their network to defend our troops," he added.

Hamas last handed over the bodies of the two dead hostages, Amiram Cooper (84) and Sahar Baruch (25) on Thursday. The two bodies were identified hours after arriving in Israel and being buried on Sunday.