Bodies of unidentified Palestinians returned from Israel as part of the ceasefire deal are brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday.Jehad Alshrafi/The Associated Press
Israel handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians on Monday, according to the Red Cross, a day after Hamas returned the remains of three hostages. Israeli officials identified the three as soldiers who were killed in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war.
The exchange marked another step forward for the tenuous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the two-year war – the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and militant Hamas group.
Here's what you need to know about Gaza and the Israel-Hamas war, including the ceasefire deal, the toll of the war so far and what comes next.
Since the truce took effect on Oct. 10, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 20 hostages, with eight now still remaining in Gaza.
For each Israeli hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians. Monday’s return brought the number of Palestinian bodies handed back since the ceasefire began to 270.
Slow identification process in Gaza
The Red Cross said it had facilitated the transfer of 45 Palestinian bodies to Gaza on Monday morning. Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson at the Gaza Health Ministry, told The Associated Press that Nasser Hospital received the bodies around noon.
Only 78 of all the returned bodies have so far been identified, the ministry said. Forensic work is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits in Gaza, it added. The ministry posts photos of the remains online, in the hope that families will recognize them.
Red Cross vehicles carrying the bodies of three people believed to be deceased hostages handed over by Hamas on Sunday.Jehad Alshrafi/The Associated Press
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s office identified the three hostages returned to Israel on Sunday night as Capt. Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli, Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel and Col. Assaf Hamami. A Hamas statement earlier said their remains were found on Sunday in a tunnel in southern Gaza.
Neutra was 21 when Hamas militants abducted his tank crew during the 2023 attack. In December, 2024, the military announced Neutra had been killed in the attack.
Daniel, 19, was part of the tank crew and was taken into Gaza. Nimrod Cohen, who was also in the tank, was released alive earlier, as was the body of one of the other crew members.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he had spoken with Neutra’s family, describing their relief and heartbreak. “They were thrilled, in one sense, but in another sense, obviously, it’s not too great,” Trump said.
Hamami, commander of Israel’s southern brigade in the Gaza division, was killed during the 2023 attack while fighting to defend Kibbutz Nirim and his body was taken into the Palestinian territory.
Militants have released one or two bodies every few days. Israel has urged for faster progress, and in certain cases it has said the remains were not those of any hostage. Hamas has said the work is complicated by widespread devastation.
Arrests of two ex-military figures rocks Israel
Since Sunday, a political scandal has rocked Israel involving the military’s former legal chief, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi after she admitted to leaking a video of Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee and resigned from office.
Far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, said she was arrested Sunday night. At a court hearing Monday, the judge extended her detention by 48 hours until Wednesday, according to a copy of the decision. It said she is being held on suspicion of offences including fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice. The investigation continues while she is held in a women’s prison in central Israel.
Police conducted a frantic search for Tomer-Yerushalmi on Sunday after her family raised concerns for her safety and police found her abandoned car near the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel’s Channel 12 reported. Police said she was found soon after the search began.
Israeli media reported that former chief military prosecutor Col. Matan Solomesh was also arrested overnight and his detention was also extended.
The Palestinian detainee who was the subject of sexual abuse in the video leaked by Tomer-Yerushalmi last year was released and returned to Gaza on Oct. 13, according to documentation from the military prosecutor’s office obtained by the AP.
A Palestinian woman walks through the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City.Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
Two Palestinians killed in the West Bank
Two Palestinians, one of them a teenager, were killed by Israeli gunfire Sunday night in separate incidents in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah.
Jamil Hanani, 17, was killed in the town of Beit Furik, the ministry said Monday. Israel’s military said soldiers opened fire at Palestinians hurling rocks, hitting one person. Hanani’s death extends a surge in military killings of Palestinian youth in the West Bank during an upswing in violence since the start of the war.
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Also Sunday, Ahmed Al-Atrash, 32, was fatally shot by an Israeli settler at an entrance to the city of Hebron, the ministry said. Israel’s military referred the AP to the police, who did not immediately comment. Hundreds of hard-line settlers live in fortified enclaves under military protection in the city of more than 200,000 Palestinians.
Efforts to ramp up Gaza aid and a vaccination campaign
U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will visit Jordan on Monday and call on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. She is expected to visit a warehouse where British aid remains stuck waiting to enter Gaza.
Ahead of the visit, Cooper said that “humanitarian support is desperately needed and the people of Gaza cannot afford to wait.”
“Following the U.S.-led peace process and the plans for a substantial increase in aid for Gaza, we need an increase in crossings, an acceleration in lifting of restrictions and more agencies able to go in with aid,” Cooper said.
Cooper also announced that Britain will provide an extra ÂŁ6 million of humanitarian support for Gaza, provided by the UN Population Fund.
A Palestinian man and children stand at a heavily damaged building surrounded by rebar and rubble in Gaza City.Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
Also Monday, Gaza’s health ministry announced that a campaign to vaccinate some 40,000 Palestinian children under three years old against preventable diseases like measles, polio and meningitis will kick off next week.
It will focus on children who missed routine vaccinations or received only partial doses due to the war, Dr. Nedal Ghoneim, the Health Ministry’s public health manager, told the AP. The exact number of children in need of routine vaccinations is unknown due to challenges recordkeeping during the war, said Ghoneim.
The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel two years ago killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 68,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.
Israel, which has denied accusations by a UN commission of inquiry and others of committing genocide in Gaza, has disputed the ministry’s figures without providing a contradicting toll.