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GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza on Wednesday, bringing the total number handed over under the ceasefire deal to 195, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
Under the deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Israel’s military said Wednesday that the remains of two more hostages returned the day before from Gaza had been identified as those of Aryeh Zalmanovich and Master Sergeant Tamir Adar.
Since October 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned, out of the 28 pledged to be handed over by Hamas under the ceasefire deal.
Gaza’s health ministry said that 57 of the returned Palestinian bodies had so far been identified by their relatives, while 54 unidentified bodies had been buried on Wednesday.
Gaza’s civil defense agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said the funeral procession began at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis and proceeded to a cemetery in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.
AFP footage from Nasser Hospital showed dozens of bodies laid out on the floor in white body bags as rescue workers stood in a line to pray over the dead.
Umm Hassan Hammad said she had been unable to identify the body of her son who has been missing since October 7, 2023.
“Every day I come here, maybe I recognize him from his clothes or the trousers he went out in since October 7,” she said.

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted on Wednesday at his opposition to any role for Turkish security forces in the Gaza Strip as part of a mission to monitor a US-backed ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Speaking in Jerusalem alongside visiting US Vice President JD Vance, Netanyahu said they had discussed the “day-after” for Gaza, including who could provide security in the territory shattered by two years of war.
Vance, who said on Tuesday US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan was going better than expected, reiterated his optimism. “I never said it was easy. But what I am is optimistic that the ceasefire is going to hold and that we can actually build a better future in the entire Middle East,” he said.
With a fragile ceasefire in place for 12 days, focus has switched to the second phase of Trump’s Gaza plan.
This requires Hamas to disarm and foresees the establishment of an internationally-supervised Palestinian committee to run Gaza with an international force supporting vetted Palestinian police.

NETANYAHU HAS ‘STRONG OPINIONS’ ON TURKISH ROLE IN GAZA
Responding to a question about the idea of Turkish security forces in Gaza, Netanyahu said: “I have very strong opinions about that. Want to guess what they are?“
Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the Defense Ministry declined to comment on the issue.
Vance said on Tuesday there would be a “constructive role” for Turkiye to play but that Washington wouldn’t force anything on Israel when it came to foreign troops “on their soil.”
Once warm relations between NATO member Turkiye and Israel hit new lows during the Gaza war, with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticizing Israel’s attacks on the enclave and elsewhere in the region, and Syria — which borders both states -emerging as an arena of intensifying rivalry.
Turkiye, which helped persuade Hamas to accept Trump’s plan, has said it would take part in the international task force to monitor the ceasefire implementation, and that its armed forces could serve in a military or civilian capacity as needed.
Hamas has resisted pressure to disarm, saying that it is ready to hand its weapons to a future Palestinian state.
Vance said: “We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas, but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel.”