Israel hands over bodies of Hamas fighters killed in 7 October attacks

Hamas has received the bodies of 45 members of its al-Qassam Brigades military wing from the Israeli army, a senior Hamas official involved in the negotiations told The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Thursday, ending months of dispute over their return.

According to the source, the bodies belonged to al-Qassam fighters who took part in the 7 October 2023 attacks, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Flood, and were killed inside Israel.

The official said Israel handed over the remains on Wednesday following an agreement mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Hamas had reportedly conditioned the handover on DNA testing to confirm the identities of the deceased, amid concerns that Israel may have included civilian remains taken from cemeteries in Gaza, several of which were bulldozed or desecrated by Israeli forces.

The official said the ICRC in Jerusalem conducted the tests using samples collected from relatives of the al-Qassam fighters.

The Hamas official added that discussions during the negotiations had also touched on the burial of former Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed, saying the group preferred to have them buried in Israel.

"The Sinwar family is originally displaced from Ashkelon, and burying them there reinforces the cause they devoted their lives to," the official said.

Thursday marked the first anniversary of the killing of Yahya Sinwar by Israeli forces in Rafah.

Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.

Since Monday, the Palestinian group had handed back 20 surviving captives to Israel in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails. It has also returned the remains of nine of 28 known deceased captives, along with another body, which Israel said was not that of a former captive.

On Wednesday, Hamas said it had handed over the bodies of two additional Israeli captives to the ICRC.

In a brief statement, the group said it was "making great efforts" to complete the return of Israeli captives' bodies, adding that recovering some of their remains had required "major efforts and specialised equipment".

Hamas heads to Egypt to honour freed detainees

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas delegation is set to arrive in Cairo on Thursday to attend a ceremony honouring recently released Palestinian detainees.

The delegation includes senior officials Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Meshaal, and other members of the group's political bureau abroad.

The event, to be held at a Cairo hotel, will honour 154 Palestinian detainees who were recently freed from Israeli prisons and transferred temporarily to Egypt. Their exile comes as part of the ongoing prisoner exchange, which stipulates that they would be deported outside the Palestinian territories as a condition set by Israel.

The deportees were sent through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where authorities began the process of relocating them to various third countries, such as Qatar, Turkey, the UAE, Tunisia, and Malaysia.

While the identities of the 154 deportees have not been made public, according to Israeli and Palestinian media reports, these include Fatah member Raed Sheikh, who was jailed for the 2000 lynching of two Israeli soldiers, and Hamas commander Mahmoud Issa, who was serving life for killing a border policeman. 

Most deportees were prisoners serving lengthy sentences for acts defined by Israel as "terrorism", many predating October 2023.