Israel Prepares to Receive the Body of a Prisoner This Evening

SadaNews - Channel 12 in Israel reported from sources that Israel has received an initial signal about the possibility of the release of the body of a prisoner this evening. For its part, Channel 15 in Israel stated that the International Committee of the Red Cross is preparing to receive the body of one of the prisoners tonight. Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced that it will hand over the body of "one of the enemy's prisoners this evening." Meanwhile, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority spoke of preliminary preparations to receive the body of a prisoner, stating that "it is unclear whether this will happen this evening." Last Wednesday evening, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), handed over the body of one of the Israeli prisoners to the Red Cross after it was found in the Shuja'iya neighborhood (eastern Gaza City) as part of the ongoing understandings between Hamas and the mediators. Since the ceasefire agreement began on October 10, Hamas has released 20 prisoners alive and handed over the bodies of 21 out of 28, with an estimated 6 soldiers' bodies remaining in the sector according to Israeli assessments. Israel links the start of the second phase of negotiations to the retrieval of the remaining bodies, while Hamas insists that this process requires considerable time and effort due to the immense destruction in Gaza that hinders access to burial sites, demanding that mediators provide equipment and technical teams to retrieve the bodies from under the rubble. The handover of the body today will be the 22nd since the ceasefire on October 10, and mediation efforts continue to consolidate the truce and advance negotiations towards implementing the remaining terms of the agreement.