"According to information presented by the Kiryat Arba community, two coffins containing the bodies of the deceased hostages were handed over to them and proceeded through IDF and Shin Bet forces in the Gaza Sector," the army said in a statement.
The two coffins, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, crossed the Israeli border and were sent to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, where the identification process will be carried out, the IDF spokesperson reported.
Hamas had previously stated that it would hand over the bodies of two Israeli hostages on Saturday, because Israel, via Egypt, had said the passage route to Gaza would remain closed until the Palestinian group returned all the bodies of the deceased hostages.
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced on social media on Saturday at 22:00 local time (19:00 GMT) that it had handed over the remains of two Israeli hostages, whose bodies had previously been found in the Gaza Sector.
