Israel receives hostage remains as Turkey issues warrants for 36 Israeli officials

Israel receives hostage remains as Turkey issues warrants for 36 Israeli officials

Israeli forces in Gaza have recovered the remains of another hostage, officials confirmed on Friday, in a development that signals cautious progress in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations.

The remains have been transferred to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for examination and identification. If confirmed to belong to one of the hostages, it would mean five bodies remain to be returned under the terms of the truce that began on October 10.

Israel has so far released the bodies of 285 Palestinians as part of the ceasefire deal, though identifying them has proved difficult because DNA testing laboratories are not permitted to operate in Gaza. Officials say some remains recently handed over by Hamas were later found not to belong to any of the missing hostages, raising tensions between the two sides.

Despite occasional disputes over compliance, the latest transfer is viewed as a sign of progress in maintaining the fragile truce. U.S. President Donald Trump has previously acknowledged that the humanitarian and logistical conditions in Gaza complicate the implementation of the ceasefire terms.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned that the volume of aid entering Gaza remains far below what is needed to meet the population’s urgent humanitarian needs.

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Deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haqq said more than 200,000 metric tons of aid are positioned for delivery, but only about 37,000 tons have reached Gaza so far.

In Israel, hundreds of mourners gathered on Friday for the military funeral of Captain Omer Neutra, a 21-year-old Israeli-American soldier killed during the October 7 Hamas attacks and whose body was returned on Sunday.

At the ceremony, Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, described Neutra as “the son of two nations,” adding:

“He embodied the best of both the United States and Israel. He has firmly cemented his place in history as the hero of two countries.”

Neutra’s mother, Orna Neutra, delivered an emotional tribute, saying:

“We are all left with the vast space between who you were to us and what you were yet to become — and with the mission to fill that gap with the light and goodness that you are.”

In a separate development, Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 36 other senior Israeli officials, accusing them of committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The warrants, while largely symbolic, reflect Ankara’s escalating criticism of Israel’s military operations in the territory.

Responding to the move, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed the warrants as politically motivated.

“Israel firmly rejects, with contempt, the latest PR stunt by the tyrant Erdogan,” Saar said in a statement.

The diplomatic tensions come as international efforts continue to sustain the ceasefire and facilitate further hostage exchanges amid mounting humanitarian concerns in Gaza.

Israel receives hostage remains as Turkey issues warrants for 36 Israeli officials

skynews