Remains of four more hostages handed over by Hamas arrive in Israel

The remains of four more Israeli hostages arrived at the National Centre of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening.

They were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza by Hamas, as Israel threatened to reduce aid into the enclave over delays to the release of the dead.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said that one of the four bodies released on Monday was not that of an Israeli held in Gaza.

That means that the remains of three identified hostages have been returned so far, with the four that arrived on Tuesday still to be confirmed.

Hamas is under pressure to expedite the return of the remaining 21 bodies , but both the militant group and the Red Cross have spoken about the challenges faced as they try to locate them.

Gaza has been massively destroyed by the Israeli offensive making recovery operations difficult.

In addition, the militant group told mediators of the fragile ceasefire deal that some of the remains are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.

Following the return of the four bodies on Tuesday, it remains unclear if the Israeli military agency will follow through on its threat to allow only half of the agreed daily 600 aid trucks into Gaza.

The US-proposed ceasefire plan called for all hostages living and dead to be handed over within 72 hours, meaning on Monday.

But it provided a mechanism if that didn’t happen, saying Hamas should share information about deceased hostages and “exert maximum effort” to carry out the handover as soon as possible.

Families of hostages and their supporters expressed dismay that only four of the 28 bodies were returned on Monday.