Hamas on Sunday delivered to Israel the remains of what it said were three hostages captured during the October 7, 2023 attacks.

Ahead of the handover, the militant group wrote on its Telegram channel: "The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the bodies ... that were found earlier today along the route of one of the tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip at 8:00 pm Gaza time [1800 GMT]."

About an hour later, the Israeli military confirmed that the International Red Cross had received the bodies of three people. 

"Three coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their [Red Cross] custody and are on their way to IDF troops in the Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced a few minutes later that the Red Cross had passed the bodies to the Israeli army, adding that the remains would be identified at a forensic medical facility.

Fragile ceasefire in Gaza

Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage-prisoner exchange under a ceasefire agreement for the Gaza war, which took effect on October 10.

Hamas released 20 surviving hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel.

The group has also begun handing over the remains of those killed. Of the 28 bodies, 17 have been returned so far, mostly Israelis.

However, forensic scientists have found that some of the remains did not belong to Israeli captives.

Israel has accused the militant group of dragging its feet, while Hamas says the process is slow because many remains are buried beneath the rubble of Gaza's destroyed buildings.

The issue has been just one of the disputes holding up full implementation of the US-brokered ceasefire.

Edited by Sean Sinico