DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said Tuesday it had received remains handed over by Palestinian militants in Gaza to the Red Cross. It was believed to be the remains of one of the two hostages still in the area: an Israeli citizen and a Thai.
The Israeli government said the “finds” in Gaza were taken for forensic testing. Palestinian media said he was in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
The remains of 26 hostages taken in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that sparked the war have already been returned since a US-brokered ceasefire began on October 10.
Palestinians killed in Gaza
Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday.
An Israeli drone strike killed a videographer in the south, officials at Nasser Hospital, which received the body, said.
Mahmoud Wadi was killed in Khan Younis, the hospital said. Wadi owned a drone photography company that once specialized in shooting events such as weddings. More recently, he posted images of the destruction of Gaza.
Also on Tuesday, a man was shot near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital, and another man was killed by Israeli fire in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, according to Al-Ahli Hospital.
The Israeli military said in a statement that troops operating in Gaza killed three people it said posed a threat as they crossed into Israeli-controlled areas of the territory. It said troops fired on two people in southern Gaza and one in northern Gaza, although it was not immediately clear if they were the same casualties reported by Gaza hospitals.
Gaza’s health ministry said more than 350 Palestinians had been killed across the territory since the ceasefire. Both Hamas and Israel have accused the other of violating the terms of the truce.
The initial 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, while 251 were taken hostage. Almost all of the hostages or their remains have been returned through cease-fires or other agreements.
Gaza’s health ministry says the Palestinian toll has exceeded 70,100. The ministry operates under the Hamas-led government. It is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records that are generally considered reliable by the international community.
Violence in the West Bank
The Israeli military also continued its operations in the occupied West Bank, shooting and killing two Palestinians on Tuesday whom it accuses of attacking soldiers.
The army said troops shot and killed a suspect who stabbed and lightly wounded two soldiers while confronting him near an Israeli settlement in the central West Bank. The incident was said to be under review. In the southern West Bank, the army said it had shot dead a Palestinian who carried out a car attack that injured a soldier. The military said the man tried to run away while they were trying to arrest him.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the suspects as an 18-year-old from northern Ramallah and a 17-year-old resident of Hebron.
The Israeli military has stepped up its activities in the West Bank since the Gaza war began. Israel says the offensive is aimed at eliminating the militants. The Palestinians say dozens of stone throwers, protesters and uninvolved civilians have been killed.
In recent weeks, Israeli settlers have stepped up attacks on Palestinian civilians.
Israel is demolishing family homes in the West Bank
Israeli forces on Tuesday demolished the family home of Abdul Karim Sanoubar, an alleged Palestinian militant currently in custody accused of planting bombs on buses in central Israel in February.
The troops evacuated 13 houses around the building in Nablus. Israel says the home demolitions are meant to deter future attackers, but critics say they amount to collective punishment against the attackers’ families and only exacerbate tensions with the Palestinians.
The army, which said the explosives in the planned attack did not detonate, said it demolished Karim Sanoubar’s family home “due to the irregular nature” of the planned attack and “with the support of legal authorities”.
Israeli troops later moved to the West Bank city of Aqabah to demolish the home of a man accused of carrying out a shooting attack in which one person was killed, the army said.
Tensions with Lebanon and Syria
The Israeli military launched a new round of strikes in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, an almost daily occurrence, as Israel accuses the Hezbollah militant group of failing to disarm after a US-brokered ceasefire last year that halted two months of war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has renewed calls for Syria to establish a large demilitarized buffer zone in the southern part of the country. Israel already holds a 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) stretch of Syrian territory along the two countries’ shared border. He says he seized it to prevent militants from moving into the area after Islamist insurgents toppled Assad. Syrian officials condemned the Israeli incursions as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
On Friday, Israeli forces killed 13 people in a raid on a Syrian village where they opened fire on residents confronting them, according to Syrian officials.
Israel has said such attacks in Lebanon and Syria are against militant groups, but critics say they take a heavy toll because civilians, including women and children, are often killed.
As Pope Leo XIV left Lebanon on a visit to the Middle East, he briefly mentioned the violence in southern Lebanon and called for peace in the region.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Janetsky from Jerusalem.
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Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war