The three partial remains Hamas returned to Israel on Friday night do not belong to any of the hostages still in Gaza, DNA tests conducted at the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir concluded.
Late on Friday, the IDF was preparing for the return of the partial remains of three slain Gaza hostages. The Red Cross handed over the remains to IDF troops overnight, but Hamas had not specified whose remains it was handing over.
Hamas said in a statement on Saturday that it had initially offered three samples from unidentified bodies to Israeli authorities for testing.
“In order to not impede the handover of the bodies, we offered to deliver three samples from a number of unidentified corpses,” Hamas stated on Telegram. “Israel refused to accept the sample and demanded to receive the bodies for examination, and we handed them over to preempt the enemy’s claims.”
A statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross said that the organization, “acting as a neutral intermediary, assisted this evening, at the request and with the approval of both parties, in returning the remains of three bodies to Israeli authorities. The identification process is the responsibility of the relevant authorities in Israel and will be carried out by them.”
The statement continued, “The International Committee of the Red Cross does not take part in locating the remains. In accordance with international humanitarian law, it is the responsibility of the parties to locate, collect, and return the dead. The parties must act to assist in returning them to their families. The ICRC can fulfill its role as a neutral intermediary only through the cooperation of all relevant parties and within the framework of the current agreement.”
This comes after slain hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch were returned to Israel on Thursday night.
The remains of the two slain hostages were transferred into Israeli territory by the IDF and the Shin Bet on Thursday evening just before 5:30 p.m., the Prime Minister's Office said, and were identified at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.
The bodies of 11 hostages are still held by terror groups in Gaza.
Hamas reburies remains of Ofir Tzarfati, stages discovery of body in front of Red Cross
Mediators informed Hamas to withdraw from behind the Yellow Line before Thursday evening, otherwise the IDF would strike, a US official told The Jerusalem Post that night.
"Last night, Hamas was notified through Egypt and Qatar that they had 24 hours to evacuate their terrorists from the area behind the yellow line currently being held by the IDF," the source said.
Hamas had previously crossed past the Yellow Line with the permission of Israeli authorities, and in coordination with the Red Cross, to recover the bodies of hostages.
On Tuesday, the IDF published footage of Hamas's reburial and staged discovery of slain hostage Ofir Tzarfati's remains.
The video, filmed by an IDF drone that had been in the area, shows Hamas members placing Tzarfati's remains in a freshly dug hole before covering the remains with dirt.
They then proceeded to "dig" up the remains and called over members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to witness the discovery.
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.