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CAIRO, October 28. /TASS/. Israel is putting obstacles in the way of Red Cross employees and local volunteers who are engaged in the search and evacuation of the bodies of Israeli hostages who died in captivity in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas spokesman said. "The [Israeli] authorities deny entry to eastern Gaza to employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and resistance groups collaborating with them to search for bodies of hostages," he told the Al Jazeera television channel. He called on the mediators in the Israel-Hamas talks "to undertake responsibility for the search operations" conducted by Red Cross medics. According to the Hamas official, the Israeli side "is deliberately hampering the search operations" to accuse Hamas of protracting the process. "[Israel’] statements that Hamas is seeking to freeze the search for hostages’ bodies are not true," he said. Hamas politburo member Mousa Abu Marzouk said earlier that the group would hand over to Israel the bodies of all the deceased hostages to be found in the enclave. The group says, however, that large-scale destruction in the enclave complicates search operations. Israel and Hamas resumed Egypt-, Qatar-, United States-, and Turkey-mediated indirect talks on settling the situation in the Gaza Strip on October 6. On October 9, the parties to the conflict signed an agreement on the implementation of phase one of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. The ceasefire came into effect on October 10. On October 13, Hamas and other Palestinian groups released all 20 living hostages and handed over the bodies of four deceased hostages under the Gaza ceasefire deal. The Israeli side expressed resentment that Hamas returned only four out of 28 bodies of deceased hostages. Later, Hamas transferred several more bodies to Israel. According to the Israeli side, radicals continue holding the remains of 15 hostages.
