Al-Qassam Receives the Body of a New Israeli Prisoner, Hamas Accuses Israel of Obstructing Search Operations

SadaNews - Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced this evening, Tuesday, that it will hand over the body of an Israeli who was in its captivity.

Al-Qassam clarified in a brief statement that the handover will take place at eight o'clock this evening.

Meanwhile, sources from Al-Qassam told Al-Jazeera that the body belongs to soldier Omri Cooper, who was recovered from inside a tunnel north of Khan Younis, indicating that a Palestinian team retrieved it.

Hamas accused the Israeli occupation in a statement of continuing a systematic policy aimed at preventing and obstructing efforts to search for the remains of its soldiers inside the Gaza Strip, mentioning that it explicitly rejected the entry of joint teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palestinian resistance to several areas in Gaza to carry out this mission.

The movement stated in its statement that the occupation's prevention of entering the necessary heavy machinery and equipment that would expedite and complete the search operations for the remains of its soldiers in Gaza, in addition to its obstruction of retrieving the remains of our martyrs who are still under the rubble, only adds to the suffering of their families.

It added: The occupation’s claims regarding the resistance's slow response to dealing with this file are baseless allegations aimed at misleading public opinion, according to the text of the statement.

It continued: The occupation is seeking to fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps against our people, in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, according to its statement.

It called on mediators and guarantor parties to assume their responsibilities in the face of these dangerous obstacles, forcing the occupation to stop its misleading practices and allowing the relevant parties to carry out their humanitarian missions away from political and aggressive calculations, as stated in its announcement.