Israel receives remains of two deceased hostages held in Gaza
Red Cross vehicles transport the bodies of two deceased hostages after they were handed over by Hamas militants
By Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Tal Shalev and Oren Liebermann, CNN
(CNN) — Israel received the remains two deceased hostages held in Gaza on Thursday afternoon. The remains were transferred to Israel via the Red Cross and taken to the country’s national forensics laboratory for identification.
The deceased hostages were identified as Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Cooper, 84, was one of the founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz near the border with Gaza. He was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023. His family was notified in June 2024 that he was killed in captivity. The circumstances of his death remain unclear, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said he was was killed in captivity around February of last year.
Cooper was the last remaining hostage from Nir Oz, one of the communities hardest hit during the initial attack two years ago, whose body had not been returned. “We will always remember Amiram as a man of people and of words, a pioneer with values, a person of initiative and ideas who so deeply loved the kibbutz and its members,” the kibbutz said in a statement.
Baruch, 25, was also taken hostage during the October 7 attack from his mother’s home in Kibbutz Be’eri. Baruch’s brother and grandmother were killed in the attack. Two months later, Baruch was killed in Gaza during a failed rescue attempt. “In this difficult and painful moment, we hope the family can find a measure of comfort in the closing of a horrific circle of 755 days and nights,” the kibbutz said in a statement.
Thursday’s transfer leaves the bodies of 11 deceased hostages remaining in Gaza.
“The effort to bring back our hostages continues uninterrupted and will not cease until the return of the last hostage,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The transfer of the remains comes just two days after Israel carried out punishing strikes in Gaza in response to the Hamas killing of an Israeli soldier in Rafah on Tuesday afternoon. The Israeli strikes killed more than 100 Palestinians, including at least 46 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, marking by far the deadliest day in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect nearly three weeks ago.
Even so, Hamas and Israel said they were still committed to the US-brokered ceasefire agreement. The transfer of two more sets of remains from Hamas to Israel on Thursday marked the strongest indication yet that the deal had not collapsed, despite the severe test it faced just days earlier.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that “nothing’s going to jeopardize” the Gaza ceasefire. He threatened to “take out Hamas very easily.”
The latest transfer appeared to proceed without the issues that have plagued recent attempts to return the remaining deceased hostages to Gaza. Hamas announced on Tuesday it was set to hand over one set of remains before saying under Israeli bombardment hours later that it would not transfer the remains.
On Monday evening, Hamas handed over remains of deceased hostage Ofir Tzarfati, whose body had been recovered by Israel in Gaza two years earlier. Tzarfati was not among the remaining deceased hostages to be returned under the ceasefire, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accuse Hamas of a “clear violation” of the deal.
The IDF then released video it said showed Hamas staging the discovery of the remains in Gaza City and turning over the remains to the Red Cross. In a statement, the Red Cross said, “It is unacceptable that a fake recovery was staged, when so much depends on this agreement being upheld and when so many families are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.”
This story has been updated with additional development.
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