One of four bodies returned by Hamas does not belong to any captive: Israeli army

CAIRO — 15 October 2025: The Israeli army confirmed that forensic tests on the fourth of four bodies returned by Hamas late Tuesday show it does not correspond to any of the Israeli captives.

“After completing the tests at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any hostage,” the army said on X on Wednesday.

“Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages.”

Preliminary indications suggest the remains may belong to a Palestinian from Gaza, two Israeli sources told CNN, with one describing the incident as a likely misidentification, rather than a deliberate attempt to send the wrong body.

This is not the first such mix-up. During a February 2025 captive-prisoner exchange, Hamas returned a body it believed to be that of Shiri Bibas, a 32-year-old Israeli mother taken along with her two young sons in October 2023.

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades hand over a coffin containing the body believed to be that of Shiri Bibas, a mother captured by the brigades along with her husband and two children on October 7, 2023. - Hamas

Forensic testing later revealed the remains were actually those of a Palestinian woman, and Hamas returned Bibas’s remains the following day.

Hamas attributed Bibas’s incident to a lack of DNA testing capabilities, destroyed by Israel during the war, and the intense Israeli bombardment of residential areas.

Under a ceasefire agreement approved by Hamas and Israel last week, all 20 living Israeli captives from Gaza were released on Monday.

Hamas is believed to still hold 21 deceased captives, having handed over seven bodies in two batches in recent days, in addition to the body the army determined does not belong to a captive.

In return, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees from its prisons on Monday, including over 1,700 individuals who had been detained in Gaza during the war without charge.

Hamas reportedly informed mediators that it plans to hand over at least four more bodies on Wednesday, while requesting additional time to locate others believed to be buried under rubble or trapped in Gaza’s tunnel networks, according to Israeli Kan.

As Hamas delivered the latest batch of bodies late Tuesday, Israel shelved previously planned punitive measures against Gazans, which had included reducing the number of aid trucks entering the strip by half.

Israel also agreed to reopen the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt and resume the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza as part of the agreement, according to Kan.