Hospital officials in Gaza say they have received the bodies of 15 Palestinians returned from Israel

Hospital officials in Gaza say they have received the bodies of 15 Palestinians returned from Israel under the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement.

The bodies arrived on Saturday at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the officials said.

It followed the return by Palestinian operatives of a body of an Israeli captive the previous day. As part of the deal, Israel has returned the remains of 15 Palestinians for each Israeli captive.

Israel said on Saturday that the remains of a captive returned from Gaza the previous night belong to an Israeli man who died while fighting Hamas in the group's October 7, 2023 attack.

The identification marked another step forward for the tenuous, US-brokered ceasefire.

The hostage body was identified as that of Lior Rudaeff, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's office.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Rudaeff was born in Argentina and moved to Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, a farming community in southern Israel, as a child. He volunteered for more than 40 years as an ambulance driver and was a member of the community’s emergency response team.

The forum said he was killed in the Hamas-led attack and that his body was taken to Gaza.

Since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, Palestinian fighters have released the remains of 23 hostages, including Rudaeff’s body, with five still remaining in Gaza.

As part of the deal, Israel has returned the remains of 15 Palestinians for each Israeli hostage.

So far, Israel has handed over the bodies of 285 Palestinians, the Red Cross and Gaza’s Health Ministry say. Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify the bodies without access to DNA kits and have identified 84 of the bodies.

Under the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire, Israel is supposed to allow substantially more aid into Gaza.

However, relief efforts under the pact still fall well short of what is needed in Gaza, according to Farhan Haqq, deputy spokesperson for the United Nations. More than 200,000 metric tons in aid is positioned to move into Gaza, but only 37,000 tons, mostly food, have been admitted, he said.

The 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. 

Gaza’s Health Ministry announced that the death toll in the enclave has reached 69,169 since 7 October 2023, following the identification of more victims and the recovery of additional bodies.

It said 284 people were recently added to the total after their identities were confirmed.

Over the last three days, hospitals received ten bodies — nine recovered from the rubble and one newly killed — along with six injured Palestinians.

The ministry noted that many people remain missing amid the widespread devastation caused by Israel’s attacks.

The ministry, part of the government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.