Palestinians Hand Over Israeli Remains

Palestinians on Thursday morning handed over the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza City to Egyptian mediators.

A Palestinian security official said that they had returned the remains of at least some of the six Israeli soldiers killed in a roadside bombing in Gaza City on Tuesday -- some of which Hamas militants had triumphantly displayed, prompting Israeli threats of punishing reprisals if body parts were not returned.
Militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and Islamic Jihad issued a joint statement about the release of remains of the six soldiers killed in the explosion on Tuesday, at a Gaza City news conference.

Egyptian mediators earlier Thursday successfully acquired the remains as part of a deal worked out with Palestinians.

They were brought by ambulance and handed over in a box to the Israelis who were waiting with another ambulance at the Erez Crossing just north of the Gaza Strip, the security official told Reuters. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Israeli soldiers organize their explosive equipment outside their armored personnel carrier at Karni border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. (AP /Tsafrir Abayov)

Israel had promised to withdraw troops after a two-day incursion in Gaza City's Zeitoun district that also left at least 16 Palestinians dead and about 185 wounded if the remains were returned. The troops withdrew earlier on Thursday, but Israel had insisted that no deal had been made.

On Wednesday, Al-Jazeera, an Arabic-language TV channel, broadcast a video it said showed two masked Islamic Jihad activists taking responsibility and displaying what they said was the head of an Israeli soldier on a table in front of them. Israel TV carried the footage but electronically obscured the head.

Hamas militants had displayed pieces of metal and bits of flesh, laying them out on the ground. In another scene, a Hamas gunman on a motorcycle held a bloodied burlap bag with body parts.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the roadside bomb, but two other groups, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — linked to Arafat's Fatah movement — and Islamic Jihad, had said they also had some remains.

A Palestinian security chief said that Arafat had ordered that the body parts be taken from militants who took them from the scene of Tuesday's explosion.