Hamas preparing to hand over more remains as Israel plans to allow Palestinians to exit Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas said it would hand over the remains of a hostage as Israel said it will start letting Palestinians leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, signs the U.S.-backed ceasefire was holding despite an earlier glitch over returned remains.

Hamas said it would return the newly discovered remains Wednesday, but it was not immediately clear to whom they belonged. Only two hostages are believed to remain in Gaza and the first phase of the deal is supposed to end when both are returned.

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The deal calls for the long-closed Rafah crossing to be opened for medical evacuations and travel to and from the strip. The World Health Organization says there are more than 16,500 sick and wounded people who need to leave Gaza for medical care.

An Israeli official told The Associated Press that Rafah would only be open for Palestinians to exit Gaza, not enter. Egypt, which controls the other side, said the crossing would open only if movement goes both ways.

Following the exchanges, the 20-point plan calls for creating an international stabilization force, forming a technocratic Palestinian government and disarming Hamas.

Planned handover comes after snag

Hamas said it would return another hostage at 5 p.m. Once received by Israel, the remains will likely undergo testing to determine if they belong to either hostage still in Gaza.

In the earlier snag, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday forensic testing had revealed the partial remains returned by militants Tuesday did not match either of the hostages still in Gaza.

Palestinian militants began searching again and said later Wednesday they had found a hostage body in northern Gaza.

Two hostage bodies are still in Gaza: Israeli Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak. Gvili was an Israeli police officer who helped people escape from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, and was killed fighting at another location. Sudthisak Rinthalak was an agricultural worker from Thailand who had been employed at Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities in the attack.

A total of 31 workers from Thailand were abducted, the largest group of foreigners to be held in captivity. Most of them were released in the first and second ceasefires. The Thai Foreign Ministry has said in addition to the hostages, 46 Thais have been killed during the war.

Rafah to open in ‘coming days’

The statement about allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza through Rafah came from COGAT, the Israeli military body charged with facilitating aid to Gaza. It said Israel would coordinate with Egypt on the exit of Palestinians, under the supervision of a mission from the European Union.

Those wishing to leave Gaza will require “Israeli security approval,” COGAT said.

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near-Eastern Affairs, writing on X, cast the opening of the crossing as a measure that would afford “the most vulnerable Gazans” access to medical care outside Gaza.

But an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational plans, said all Palestinians who want to exit Gaza will be able to move through Rafah if Egypt agrees to receive them.

The official said the crossing won’t open for returns to Gaza.

Egypt’s State Information Service denied the Rafah crossing will be “only for the exit” of Palestinians in Gaza. Citing an unnamed Egyptian official, the service said the crossing, if an agreement is reached, will be for travel in both directions in accordance with the plan advanced by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The crossing was sealed off in May 2024 when Israel’s military invaded the area. It was briefly opened in February this year for the evacuation of sick and wounded Palestinians for treatment, as part of the previous ceasefire deal.

Israel nominates Lebanon envoy

Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would send an envoy to talks with Lebanese diplomatic and economic officials, marking an “initial attempt to create a basis for relations and economic cooperation” between the two countries.

Israeli media identified the envoy as Uri Resnick, a former diplomat and the national security council’s deputy director for foreign policy.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said he would appoint a civilian to the previously military-only committee monitoring enforcement of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. The move was to defend Lebanese sovereignty and interests, he said.

Israel and Lebanon have been in a state of war since 1948. Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fought a months-long war that ended in a shaky ceasefire one year ago.

The Lebanese appointee, Simon Karam, an attorney and former ambassador to the U.S., will take part in the committee’s meeting Wednesday, Aoun said. The committee includes representatives of Lebanon, Israel, the U.S., France and the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL.

Palestinian hospital says Israel killed a man in Gaza

A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire on Wednesday in Gaza Strip, a hospital said, marking the latest reported Palestinian fatality in Gaza.

Israeli forces shot the 46-year-old man in Gaza City’s eastern Zeitoun neighborhood, according to the Al-Ahli hospital, which received the body. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The hospital said the man was shot while in the “safe zone,” which, under the terms of the ceasefire, is not controlled by the Israeli military.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 360 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 11. The ministry sets the total Palestinian death toll from the war over 70,100. The ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians, though it says roughly half of those killed have been women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas-run government. It is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

Return of Palestinian bodies in flux

Twenty living hostages and the remains of 26 others have been returned to Israel since the ceasefire began in early October. Both Hamas and Israel have accused the other of breaking the ceasefire multiple times.

The exchanges of the dead have been the central component of the initial phase of the U.S.-brokered agreement, which requires Hamas to return all hostages’ remains as quickly as possible.

Israel has been releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the remains of each hostage as part of the ceasefire agreement. The Gaza Health Ministry said the total number of remains received so far is 330. Health officials in Gaza have said they have only been able to identify a fraction of the bodies handed over by Israel, and the process is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits.

The exchanges have gone ahead even as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating other terms of the deal. Israeli officials have accused Hamas of handing over partial remains in some instances and staging the discovery of bodies in others.

Hamas has accused Israel of opening fire on civilians and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory. The number of casualties has dropped since the ceasefire took effect, but officials in Gaza have continued to report deaths from strikes, while Israel has said that soldiers have also been killed in militant attacks.

The ceasefire aims to wind down the war that was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.