Al-Qassam Locates Body of Another Israeli Soldier, Begins Handover Procedures
This development comes two days after the Brigades handed over the bodies of three Israeli officers and soldiers.
Palestine, PUREWILAYAH.COM - The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced on Tuesday that its fighters recovered the body of an Israeli occupation soldier east of Shuja’iyya during ongoing search and excavation operations inside the so-called “yellow line.”
The Brigades confirmed that arrangements are underway to hand over the remains to the occupation.
According to the statement, the entry of engineering machinery and the accompaniment of Al-Qassam personnel alongside International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) teams accelerated the recovery process and enabled the discovery of additional remains.
This development comes two days after the Brigades handed over the bodies of three Israeli officers and soldiers.
Occupation Controls “Yellow Line”
The Israeli army currently maintains control over what it calls the “yellow line,” spanning nearly half of the Gaza Strip from the northern areas down to the outskirts of Rafah in the south.
Since the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in October, Hamas has handed over 20 Israeli captives alive in addition to several remains. The movement reaffirmed that retrieving the rest of the bodies requires time due to the immense levels of destruction caused by the Israeli war.
Catastrophic Toll of Israel’s War on Gaza
The Gaza Government Media Office reports that approximately 9,500 Palestinians remain missing beneath the rubble left by two years of relentless Israeli bombardment and invasion.
The war has:
Killed more than 68,000 Palestinians,
the vast majority women and children;Wounded around 170,000 others;
Destroyed over 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
The scale of destruction continues to obstruct recovery efforts as search teams navigate unprecedented devastation inflicted by the occupation’s assault on the besieged enclave. (PW)