Tel Aviv, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Wednesday that Israel had completed identifying the bodies of the two other hostages, while US Vice President J.D. Vance held high-level meetings in Israel to push forward the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
The authorities identified the two deceased hostages as Ari Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar. The Red Cross transferred their bodies in coffins and delivered them to the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.
The two were killed on Kibbutz Nir Oz during an attack by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, sparking the two-year war.
Since the ceasefire began on October 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Another 13 ships in Gaza must still be recovered and handed over, a key element of the ceasefire agreement.
54 Palestinians are scheduled to be buried today, Wednesday, in the Deir al-Balah cemetery in Gaza. The bodies were displayed in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis before being buried.
Vance will meet with Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday. He is accompanied by the US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkopf, and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Vance, Witkoff and Kushner said the ceasefire had exceeded expectations but acknowledged the escalation in violence in recent days.
There remains uncertainty about the peace plan, including the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force in Gaza and who will govern the area. Vance said on Tuesday that officials were considering the formation of the security force, pointing to Türkiye and Indonesia as two countries expected to contribute troops.
Britain is also sending a small contingent of military officers to Israel to help monitor the ceasefire.
Funeral prayers for the Palestinians
Dozens of people, some carrying Palestinian flags, gathered outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis to perform funeral prayers over the bodies of 54 Palestinians wearing white shrouds.
The unidentified bodies were among 165 bodies returned by Israel to Gaza last week. They will be transferred to the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for burial.
A senior health official in Gaza said some of the bodies bore “evidence of torture” and called for an investigation.
Israel did not provide identities for the bodies or explain their origins. These could include Palestinians who died during the October 7 attacks, detainees who died in custody or bodies taken by Israeli forces from Gaza during the war.
So far, authorities in Gaza have identified 52 bodies, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
A charity says an armed group has taken over its facility in Gaza
A major Palestinian nongovernmental organization providing mental health services to Gaza residents said Wednesday that there was an “armed raid and brutal takeover” of one of its facilities in the Strip last week.
The Gaza Community Mental Health Program said that an unidentified “armed group” stormed the facility in Gaza City on October 13, took over the building, forcibly removed the guards and placed their families there.
“This blatant attack and serious crime represents a flagrant violation of all laws and customs,” the group said.
It was not clear why the organization waited more than a week to report the seizure, but it said that although it made immediate requests to authorities to intervene, there was “no concrete action” to return the facility “despite repeated promises to evacuate.”
They urged the Palestinian authorities to act immediately and called on the countries sponsoring the ceasefire to “intervene decisively.”
Israelis bid farewell to a Thai hostage who was killed on October 7, 2023
Today, Israelis are scheduled to bid farewell to a Thai farm worker whose body will be returned to his native Thailand later in the day.
Sonthaya Okharsri was killed during a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and his body was held in Gaza until it was returned last weekend.
A statement by the Abductees’ Return Families Authority said that a gathering would be organized at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to bid farewell to Okharasri, describing him as “a devoted father and farmer who dreamed of establishing his own farm.”
In the 2023 attack on Israel that started the war, Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 people hostage.
The war between Israel and Hamas led to the death of more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its statistics. The Ministry maintains detailed records of victims that UN agencies and independent experts generally consider reliable. Israel objected to it without providing its own tally.
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