Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 28-Israeli Defense Minister Katz issued a statement on the 27th announcing that the "special state" of civil defense emergency in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip was lifted in the early morning of the 28th. The Israeli military issued a statement on the evening of 27th, saying that the International Committee of the Red Cross received a coffin containing the bodies of Israeli detainees from the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip on the same day, and then handed it over to the Israeli army.

This is a photo of Israeli troops on the Gaza border after the ceasefire came into effect on October 10. Photo by Xinhua Agency reporter Chen Junqing

Remove the "special state"

The ¡°Special Status¡± is an emergency civil defense measure taken by Israel in the face of a high-risk attack. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a raids on civilian military targets in the southern Israeli region near the Gaza Strip.

Katz said in a statement that the decision, taken two weeks after the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement came into effect,"reflects the new security realities in the south." Israel will continue to achieve all stated combat goals, including the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.

The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement entered into force on the 10th, including an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire and an exchange of detainees, humanitarian aid supplies into Gaza, the partial evacuation of Israeli troops from Gaza, etc. But the Gaza Health Department that at least 93 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the ceasefire agreement came into force.

On October 17, the driver of the loader cleaned the streets of Khan Younis in Gaza to search for the remains.

release the body

The Israeli military announced on the evening of the 27th that it had received a coffin of the remains of the captured Israelis handed over by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Previously, Hamas announced that it would hand over the remains of a detainee to Israel later that day. Qatar Peninsula TV that Hamas found the remains during excavations in a community in Gaza City that day. According to the Israeli side, Hamas has currently handed over 17 remains to Israel, but one of the dead is not an Israeli detainee.

According to the agreement, Hamas released a total of 20 Israeli detainees in two batches on the 13th, while Israel released nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and successively handed over the remains of hundreds of Palestinian detainees.

Israel has indefinitely postponed the opening of the Rafah crossing, which is crucial for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, on the grounds that Hamas failed to hand over the remains of all detainees on time. Hamas said it would take time to search for bodies buried under the rubble and faced difficulties such as a lack of heavy equipment. (Reporters Wang Zhuolun, Lu Yifan, Chen Junqing)