Israel receives remains of 2 more hostages as military says another body was not that of a hostage

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel received the remains of two more hostages Wednesday, hours after the Israeli military said that one of the bodies previously turned over was not that of a hostage. The confusion added to tensions over the fragile truce that has paused the two-year war.

The coffins carrying the remains were transferred by the Red Cross from Hamas. Upon returning to Israel, they were sent to a forensic lab in Tel Aviv. The military in a statement cautioned that the hostages’ identities had yet to be verified.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry said it received 45 more bodies of Palestinians from Israel, another step in implementation of the ceasefire agreement. That brought to 90 the total number of bodies returned to Gaza for burial. The forensics team examining the remains said they showed signs of mistreatment.

As part of the deal, four bodies of hostages were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday, following four on Monday that were returned hours after the last 20 living hostages were released from Gaza. In all, Israel has been awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 hostages.

The Israeli military said forensic testing showed that "the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages." There was no immediate word on whose body it was.

In exchange for the release of the hostages, Israel freed around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees Monday.

Israel is expected to turn over more bodies, though officials have not said how many are in its custody or how many will be returned. It is unclear whether the remains belong to Palestinians who died in Israeli custody or were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops. Throughout the war, Israel’s military has exhumed bodies as part of its search for the remains of hostages.

As forensic teams examined the first remains returned, the Health Ministry on Wednesday released images of 32 unidentified bodies to help families recognize missing relatives.

Many appeared decomposed or burned. Some were missing limbs or teeth, while others were coated in sand and dust. Health officials have said Israeli restrictions on allowing DNA testing equipment into Gaza have often forced morgues to rely on physical features and clothing for identification.

The forensics team that received the bodies said some arrived still shackled or bearing signs of physical abuse.

Sameh Hamad, a member of a commission tasked with receiving the bodies at Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital, said some arrived with their hands and legs cuffed.

“There are signs of torture and executions,” he told The Associated Press.

The bodies, he said, belonged to men ages 25 to 70. Most had bands on their necks, including one that had a rope around the neck.

Most of the bodies wore civilian clothing, but some were in uniforms, suggesting they were militants.

Hamad said the Red Cross provided names for only three of the dead, leaving many families uncertain of their relatives’ fate. The fighting has killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in Gaza. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross and Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Rasmiya Qudeih, 52, waited outside Nasser Hospital, hoping her son would be among the 45 bodies transferred Wednesday from Israel.

He vanished on Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas-led attack that triggered the war. She was told he was killed by an Israeli strike.

“God willing, he will be with the bodies," she said.

The ceasefire plan introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump had called for all hostages — living and dead — to be handed over by a deadline that expired Monday. But under the deal, if that didn’t happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel “will not compromise” and demanded that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal about the return of hostages’ bodies.

Trump, in an interview with CNN, warned that Israel could resume the war if he feels Hamas isn't upholding its end of the agreement.

“Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word," Trump said.

Hamas’ armed wing said in a statement Wednesday that the group honored the ceasefire’s terms and handed over the remains of the hostages it had access to.

Hamas has assured the U.S. through intermediaries that it is working to return dead hostages, according to two senior U.S. advisers. The advisers, who were not authorized to comment publicly and briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said they do not believe Hamas has violated the deal.

The widespread destruction in the territory has complicated the retrieval of the dead, the officials added. One of the advisers said debris as well as unexploded weapons add to the difficulty.

Hamas has told mediators that some bodies are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.

This is not the first time Hamas has returned a wrong body to Israel. During a previous ceasefire, the group said it handed over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons, who were among those taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted.

Testing in February 2025 showed that one of the bodies returned was identified as a Palestinian woman. Bibas’ body was returned a day later.

The World Food Program said its trucks began arriving in Gaza after the entrance of humanitarian aid into Gaza was paused for two days due to the exchange on Monday and a Jewish holiday Tuesday.

The timing of the scaled-up deliveries — which are part of the ceasefire deal — was called into question after Israel said Tuesday that it would cut the number of trucks allowed into Gaza, saying Hamas was too slow to return the hostages' bodies.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said 400 trucks carrying food, fuel and medical supplies were bound for Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT, declined to comment on the number of trucks expected to enter Gaza.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Michelle Price and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

Red Cross vehicles carrying the bodies of deceased Palestinians held by Israel during the war arrive after their release, at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Trucks carrying aid from the World Food Programme (WFP) drive through in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Mourners gather near the car carrying the coffin of slain hostage Guy Illouz during his funeral procession in Rishon Lezion, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Illouz remains were returned from Gaza to Israel as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Palestinians rush toward trucks carrying aid from the World Food Programme (WFP) as they drive through Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners walk near the car carrying the coffin of slain hostage Guy Illouz during his funeral procession in Rishon Lezion, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Illouz remains were returned from Gaza to Israel as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Jewish revelers dance and hold up the Torah as they celebrate the holiday of Simchat Torah next to the plaza known as hostages square, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A gunman wearing the uniform of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stands guard as Red Cross vehicles allegedly transporting coffins containing the bodies of four deceased hostages leave a warehouse for Israel, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)

A gunman wearing the uniform of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stands guard as Red Cross vehicles enter a warehouse allegedly to collect coffins containing the bodies of four deceased hostages, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)

A Tennessee man charged with killing four members of the same family and kidnapping a baby before eluding authorities for a week is scheduled Monday to make his first court appearance since he was indicted.

Austin Robert Drummond is expected to appear before a judge for an afternoon arraignment in circuit court in Lake County, located in rural northwest Tennessee.

A grand jury indicted Drummond on Nov. 10 on charges including first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping in the July 29 shootings. Drummond had pleaded not guilty in a lower court before a judge ruled there was enough evidence for his case to proceed to the grand jury.

Drummond is accused of the deaths of the parents, grandmother and uncle of an infant found abandoned in a home’s front yard in rural west Tennessee. A weeklong search for Drummond ended on Aug. 5 in Jackson, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southeast of the location of the killings in Tiptonville.

Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty if Drummond is convicted of first-degree murder at trial.

An FBI agent testified at a hearing in September that data from a cellphone used by Drummond showed he was in the vicinity of a wooded area where the bodies were found with gunshot wounds and covered by tarpaulins.

But Drummond’s attorney, Bryan Huffman, argued that there was no evidence presented during the hearing that showed Drummond actually shot any of the victims.

On the day of the shootings, officers responded to a call of an infant in a car seat being dropped off at a “random individual’s front yard” roughly 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Tiptonville, the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office has said.

Then investigators in neighboring Lake County reported four people had been found dead from gunshot wounds in Tiptonville. They were identified as the baby’s parents, James M. Wilson, 21, and Adrianna Williams, 20; Williams’ brother, Braydon Williams, 15; and their mother, Cortney Rose, 38.

Drummond’s girlfriend is the sister of the infant’s grandmother, according to Lake County District Attorney Danny Goodman.

In all, five people have been charged with being accessories after the fact in the case.

Drummond has served prison time for robbing a convenience store and threatening to go after jurors. He was also charged with the attempted murder of a prison guard while behind bars, and he was out on bond at the time of the killings, Goodman has said.

With a population of about 3,400 people, Tiptonville is about 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of Memphis, near the Mississippi River and scenic Reelfoot Lake.

FILE - Defendant Austin Drummond, accused of quadruple murder, appears in court during a preliminary hearing Sept. 4, 2025, in Tiptonville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, Pool, File)