Two coffins containing the remains of Israeli hostages were returned to Israel on Thursday, following a transfer facilitated by the Red Cross in Gaza. The caskets, guarded by IDF soldiers, were brought across the border and received in a solemn military ceremony before being taken to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir for official identification.
Kibbutz Nir Oz later confirmed that one of the victims was Amiram Cooper. The Prime Minister’s Office stated that the second identified hostage was Sahar Baruch. Authorities said that Hamas is still holding the bodies of eleven other hostages inside Gaza.
Earlier in the week, confusion surrounded a separate handover. On Tuesday morning, Hamas publicly reneged on its commitment to return another hostage’s body, claiming the IDF’s retaliatory strike in Rafah had violated their agreement. That strike followed gunfire from Hamas terrorists at Israeli forces performing engineering operations in the area.
Later that day, Israeli officials revealed that the remains delivered the previous night were not those of a newly identified hostage as promised. Instead, they were confirmed to be the remains of Ofir Sarfati — a hostage whose body had already been repatriated nearly two years ago.
A detailed forensic investigation by the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine verified Sarfati’s identity, closing yet another painful chapter in Israel’s ongoing efforts to bring every hostage home.
{Matzav.com}
