DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel on Tuesday said it had received “findings” handed over by Palestinian militants in Gaza to the Red Cross. They were believed to be remains of one of the two hostages still in the territory: an Israeli and a Thai national.
Israel’s government said they would be taken for forensics testing. Palestinian media has said they were found in Gaza’s northern town of Beit Lahiya. Israeli officials didn’t immediately say what the term “findings” meant.
The remains of 26 hostages taken in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war have already been returned since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire began on Oct. 10.
Palestinians killed in Gaza
Israeli fire killed two Palestinians in Gaza in Tuesday.
An Israeli drone strike killed a videographer in the south, said officials at Nasser Hospital, which received the body.
Momahed Wadi was killed in Khan Younis, the hospital said. Wadi owned a drone photography company that once specialized on filming occasions like weddings. More recently, it posted footage of Gaza's destruction.
Also Tuesday, a man was shot dead near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on either death, but has said killings are often in response to militants approaching or firing at its forces.
Gaza's Health Ministry said more than 350 Palestinians have been killed across the territory since the ceasefire. Both Hamas and Israel have accused the other of breaking the terms of the truce.
The initial 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed around 1,200 people while more than 250 others were taken hostage. Almost all of the hostages or their remains have been returned in ceasefires or other deals.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian toll has topped 70,100. The ministry operates under the Hamas-run government. It is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
Violence in the West Bank
Israel’s military has also pushed forward its operations in the occupied West Bank, shooting and killing two Palestinians on Tuesday it accused of attacking soldiers.
The military said troops shot and killed a suspect who stabbed and lightly wounded two soldiers as they confronted him near an Israeli settlement in the central West Bank. It said the incident was under review. In the southern West Bank, the army said it fatally shot a Palestinian who had carried out a car-ramming attack that wounded a soldier. The army said the man attempted to flee as they tried to arrest him.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the suspects as an 18-year-old from north of Ramallah and an 17-year-old resident of Hebron.
Israel's military has stepped up its activities in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began. Israel says the offensive is aimed at rooting out militants. Palestinians say scores of stone-throwers, protesters and uninvolved civilians have been killed.
In recent weeks, Israeli settlers have stepped up attacks on Palestinian civilians.
Israel demolishes family homes in West Bank
Israeli forces on Tuesday demolished the family home of Abdul Karim Sanoubar, a suspected Palestinian militant currently in detention who has been accused of planting bombs on buses in central Israel in February.
Troops evacuated 13 homes around the building in Nablus. Israel says home demolitions are meant to deter future attackers, but critics say they amount to collective punishment against the families of assailants and only exacerbate tensions with Palestinians.
The military, which said the explosives in the planned attack didn't detonate, said it demolished Karim Sanoubar’s family’s home “due to the irregular nature” of the planned attack and “with the backing of the legal authorities.”
Israeli troops later traveled to Aqabah town in the West Bank to demolish the house of a man accused of carrying out a shooting attack in which one person was killed, the military said.
Tensions with Lebanon and Syria
On Tuesday, Israel’s military launched another round of strikes on southern Lebanon, an almost daily occurrence as Israel accuses the militant group Hezbollah of failing to disarm following a U.S.-brokered ceasefire last year that halted two months of war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed calls to establish a demilitarized buffer zone along the Israel-Syria border in a visit to soldiers injured in Syria. On Friday, Israeli forces killed 13 people in a raid on a Syrian village, where they opened fired on residents confronting them, according to Syrian officials.
Israel has said such attacks in Lebanon and Syria are against militant groups, but critics say they come with a heavy toll as civilians, including women and children, are often killed.
As Pope Leo XIV departed Lebanon on a visit to the Middle East, he made a brief mention of violence in Lebanon's south and called for peace in the region.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Janetsky from Jerusalem.
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Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war