Palestinian Islamic Jihad is still holding at least two deceased Israeli hostages in Gaza Strip
A Palestinian source involved in the negotiations told Kan News on Monday that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is holding at least two deceased hostages out of the four who are still in the Gaza Strip.
The source also said that the PIJ is doing some “arm-twisting” regarding their return, but he estimates that the group will ultimately agree to hand them over to Israel through the Red Cross.
Last night, Kan News reported that in the past 24 hours, significant pressure has been applied on Hamas to bring about the return of all the deceased hostages.
According to a Palestinian source involved in the talks, the main party applying pressure on the organization is Turkey.
The Palestinian source, who spoke with Kan News in the context of the return of Hadar Goldin’s body to Israel, estimated that the United States is behind the Turkish pressure, based on Washington’s understanding that Turkey has considerable influence over Hamas.
The source further noted that Hamas is facing certain difficulties in returning some of the four deceased hostages still in its possession.
According to him, this difficulty is not dependent on Hamas itself — and the mediators understand and accept this. This may correspond with the report that PIJ is delaying the release.
The four hostages still in Gaza are police officer Ran Gvili, Manny Godard, and Dror Or from Kibbutz Be’eri, as well as Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai citizen who was abducted from the Be’eri area.
Kan.org.il is the Hebrew news website of the The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation
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