Meanwhile, last week, it returned the partial remains of a hostage, most of whose body had already been recovered by the IDF almost two years ago.
IDF drone footage captured Hamas terrorists burying the remains of Ofir Tzarfati, only to summon the Red Cross and “discover” them again within hours.
Israel has accused the group of violating the ceasefire with these false returns and has claimed that it is delaying releasing the remaining hostages in order to prevent the progression of the Trump-backed peace plan, the next phase of which requires its disarmament.
Hamas has also continued to fire on IDF troops, with a reservist killed last week.
That prompted retaliatory airstrikes from Israel, which the Hamas-run Health Ministry claimed killed more than 100 people – though this does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Following the strikes, the IDF confirmed its “renewed enforcement of the ceasefire”.
"The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it,” said a military spokesman.
The 11 hostages remaining in Gaza have been named as Itay Chen, Oz Daniel, Meny Godard, Hadar Goldin, Ran Gvili, Asaf Hamami, Joshua Mollel, Omer Neutra, Dror Or, Sudthisak Rinthalak and Lior Rudaeff.
