Bodies of 15 Palestinians returned by Israel, health officials in Gaza say

By WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS Gaza AP Israel returned the bodies of Palestinians to Gaza on Friday personnel at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis commented in the latest step to fulfilling the terms of the fragile U S -brokered ceasefire agreement Forensic staff receives bodies of unidentified Palestinians returned from Israel at a facility in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis Gaza Strip Friday Nov AP Photo Abdel Kareem Hana The bodies were returned after Hamas late Thursday handed over the body of one of the last four remaining Israeli hostages taken during the Oct terrorist attack that launched the war in Gaza Israel identified the returned body as that of Meny Godard who was abducted from Kibbutz Be eri in southern Israel His wife Ayelet was killed during the attack The armed wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad stated Godard s body was recovered in southern Gaza The remains of hostages have been returned to Israel since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on Oct There are still three more in Gaza that need to be recovered and handed over Hamas returned living hostages to Israel on Oct For each hostage returned Israel has published the remains of Palestinians an exchange central to the ceasefire s first phase Overall the number of bodies of Palestinians received so far is of which only have been formally identified according to Gaza Medical Ministry agents Also on Friday the bodies of unidentified Palestinians were interred in Deir al-Balah Particular Palestinians whose identity wasn t ascertained have already been buried according to Gaza s Fitness Ministry Robustness representatives in Gaza have revealed identifying the remains handed over by Israel is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits The exchanges have gone ahead even as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating other terms of the deal Israel has accused Hamas of handing over partial remains in specific instances and staging the discovery of bodies in others while Hamas has accused Israel of opening fire at civilians and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory UN human rights chief says settler violence must end The U N s human rights chief Volker T rk on Friday joined a chorus of condemnation over a contemporary string of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank urging an end to the violence and for Israel to hold the perpetrators accountable Related Articles Protesters block entrance to COP circumstances talks in Brazil At present in History November Marshall University football association killed in plane crash Zanzibar s solar mamas are trained as technicians to help light up communities BBC apologizes to Trump over its misleading edit but says there s no basis for a defamation claim British commentator Sami Hamdi mulling possibility of taking legal action against US over detention U N Human Rights Commissioner spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan revealed T rk also called on Israel to end its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory right now stop all new settlement exercises and evacuate all settlers Al-Kheetan explained more than attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians were recorded in October more than in any month since We reiterate that the Israeli establishment s assertion of sovereignty over the occupied West Bank and its annexation of parts of it are in breach of international law as the International Court of Justice has endorsed reported Al-Kheetan Israeli settlers on Thursday torched and defaced a mosque in a Palestinian village in the central West Bank That followed violence two days earlier during which dozens of masked Israeli settlers set fire to vehicles and other property in the Palestinian villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf The attacks on the two Palestinian villages prompted Israeli President Isaac Herzog to denounce them as shocking and serious Israeli army s chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir explained the military will not tolerate the phenomena of a minority of criminals who tarnish a law-abiding masses U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned on Wednesday that there s concern that the events in the West Bank could undermine what we re doing in Gaza Israeli executives have sought to cast settler violence as the work of a inadequate extremists But Palestinians and rights groups say that the violence is widespread and carried out by settlers across the territory with impunity from Israel s far-right executive led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who hasn t commented on the surge in violence Meanwhile the Palestinian Strength Ministry in the West Bank commented six teenagers aged to were shot and killed by Israeli fire in four separate incidents over the last two weeks In the greater part newest event Thursday two year-old boys where killed near the village of Beit Ummar The Israeli military revealed in three of the four incidents its soldiers were responding to terrorists hurling either Molotov cocktails or explosives or were in the process of carrying out a terror attack In one affair the military explained troops acting according to standard operating procedures opened fire against Palestinians throwing rocks to remove the threat What s next for Gaza The next parts of the -point plan call for creating an international stabilization force forming a technocratic Palestinian authorities and disarming Hamas The fragile agreement aims to wind down the war that was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about people and saw taken hostage Israel responded with a sweeping military offensive that has killed more than Palestinians in Gaza according to Gaza s Robustness Ministry The ministry part of the Hamas-run administration and staffed by health professionals maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts