Gaza Strip, 03 November (Udaipur Kiran) — Terror group Hamas on Sunday evening handed over the bodies of three hostages to Israel through the Red Cross, Israeli and group statements said. Israeli officials are working to confirm the identities; one body has been identified as soldier Omer Neutra.

According to a report linked to the episode in The Times of Israel, US President Donald Trump said the remains belong to US-Israeli soldier Omer Neutra and that Neutra’s parents in New York had confirmed the identification. Israeli authorities said that if the three are confirmed as the hostages, they expect to recover the remains of eight more.

Hamas said the three bodies were recovered from a tunnel on Sunday. The group published a photograph showing one body wrapped in a bag with a name written on it, and said it handed three coffins to Red Cross representatives in southern Gaza. The Red Cross delivered the coffins to the Israel Defense Forces, which transferred the bodies to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv for identification.

Earlier, on Thursday, Hamas returned the remains of two other hostages — 84-year-old Amiram Cooper and 25-year-old Sahar Barouk — whose identities were confirmed and who were buried in Israel on Sunday.

Israeli officials have accused Hamas of delaying full compliance with the ceasefire agreement reached on October 10. Under that deal, Hamas was to return all 20 living hostages within 72 hours and locate the remains of all 28 deceased hostages in the same period. Israel says Hamas returned all 20 living hostages but located only four of the 28 dead by the deadline; the group has since returned an additional 13 bodies gradually.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting hours earlier, said only two Hamas positions remain in Gaza under Israeli control — one in Rafah and another in Khan Younis — and vowed, “They will be destroyed.” He added that “if there is any attempt to harm troops in Gaza, an attack will be carried out.”