Hamas hands over bodies of three hostages, while accusing Israel of truce violations / Netanyahu: “We are still eliminating Hamas groups from Gaza”

Hamas handed over the bodies of three hostages on Sunday as the Palestinian Authority and Israel blamed each other for violating the fragile truce that largely ended two years of war.

Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip received the coffins containing the bodies of the three hostages, sent through the Red Cross, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced. The remains will be transported to Israel for identification.

The bodies are expected to be those of three of the 11 hostages whose remains Israel is requesting from Gaza under the terms of the cease-fire agreement. Israel has accused Hamas of delaying their handover, while the Palestinian group says it is acting as quickly as it can under difficult conditions.

The issue is one of the disputes blocking the full implementation of the US-brokered ceasefire, which has been in effect since October 10.

Also on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike killed a man in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said its jets struck a militant who posed a threat to its troops. Al-Ahli Hospital announced that a man died in the airstrike near a vegetable market in the Shejaia neighborhood of Gaza City.

“There are still Hamas groups in the areas under our control in Gaza, and we are systematically eliminating them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech at the start of a government meeting in Jerusalem.

Hamas published a list of what it called ceasefire violations by Israel. Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-controlled Gaza government's press office, denied that the group's fighters violated the ceasefire by attacking Israeli soldiers.

The violence has not stopped completely

The truce has largely reduced the fighting, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the rubble of their homes in Gaza. Israel withdrew its troops from the cities and the flow of humanitarian aid increased.

Hamas released all 20 hostages alive it was holding in Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and convicts in Israeli jails. Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas also pledged to hand over the bodies of 28 dead hostages in exchange for the remains of 360 Palestinian militants killed in the war. By Sunday, he had taught 17.

Meanwhile, the violence has not completely stopped. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 236 people in attacks on the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire began, nearly half of them in a single day last week when Israel retaliated after an attack on its troops. Israel claims three soldiers were killed and that it targeted dozens of fighters.

The truce was brokered by the United States, and both sides called on Washington to intervene to stop the violations.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine met with Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir on Saturday during a visit to the region to discuss the situation in Gaza, the Israeli military said. Netanyahu said any Israeli action in Gaza is reported to Washington. But Hamas has accused the United States of not doing enough to ensure that Israel abides by the cease-fire agreement.

About 200 US soldiers have set up a base in southern Israel to monitor the truce and draw up plans for an international force to stabilize the enclave, a step envisaged in the later stages of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war.

So far, there is little sign of progress on the next steps, and the main obstacles remain the disarmament of Hamas and the establishment of a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.