Hamas leader: We are not concerned with hiding the bodies of prisoners or delaying their delivery news

Suhail al-Hindi, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said today, Tuesday, that the Palestinian resistance has no interest in hiding the body of any Israeli prisoner or delaying its handover, stressing Hamas’ commitment to the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.

He confirmed – during an interview with Al Jazeera – that Hamas made every effort to recover the bodies of the dead Israeli prisoners, holding the occupation authorities responsible for delaying the exhumation of the rest of the bodies.

According to Al-Hindi, Hamas is awaiting the approval of the occupation authorities for specialized teams to enter the city of Rafah (south of the Gaza Strip) to search for the bodies of Israeli prisoners.

In this context, a member of Hamas’ political bureau revealed that Israel rejected a request for search teams to enter “red zones” to search for the bodies of dead prisoners.

Hamas has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to hand over the bodies of 13 prisoners still in the Palestinian Strip, namely 10 Israelis captured in an attack. October 7, 2023An Israeli has been missing since 2014, a Thai worker and a Tanzanian.

Al-Hindi pointed out that Hamas is facing great difficulties in recovering the bodies of the prisoners, calling at the same time for heavy equipment to be brought in to recover the rest.

The member of Hamas’s political bureau also called on the mediators in the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement to “pressure the enemy to facilitate the extraction of the remaining bodies of its prisoners.”

He stressed the commitment of Hamas and the resistance factions “in all honesty” to the concluded agreement, indicating that Israel is required to understand this and stop accusing Hamas of violating it.

On October 10, the first phase of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel came into effect, according to which 20 Israeli prisoners were released alive and most of the bodies of the dead prisoners were handed over.

In terms of numbers, Al-Hindi said that Hamas and the resistance factions have so far handed over 16 bodies out of 28 bodies demanded by Israel.

These statements come at a time when a resistance source told Al Jazeera that the body of Israeli prisoner Amiram Cooper was found inside a tunnel north of Khan Yunis (south) and that the resistance will hand it over this evening in the vicinity of the tunnel in which it was found.

Israel’s receipt of the remains of a prisoner (previously found and buried in Israel) was met with angry statements from the right-wing Ministers of National Security and Finance, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire after Israeli forces received last night through the Red Cross the body of the Israeli who was found during searches in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City.

On the other hand, the Israeli newspaper Maariv quoted a political official as saying that it was decided, after consultations held by Netanyahu, “to impose sanctions on Hamas and respond strongly to the violations.”