People gather at a memorial marking the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, deadly Hamas attack on Israel, calling for the release of all hostages held in the Gaza Strip and an end to the war, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 7. (AP file photo)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to health authorities in Gaza on Friday, completing an exchange after militants turned over remains of two hostages, in a sign that the tense Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement is edging forward.

The incremental progress came despite Israeli strikes on Gaza this week that killed more than 100 people following the killing of an Israeli soldier.

The bodies were transferred with the Red Cross serving as intermediary. The return of the Palestinian remains was confirmed by a doctor at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, where medical workers were striving to identify them.

Latest exchange

Photos showed the remains, in white body bags, arranged in rows inside the grounds of Nasser Hospital. Health officials have struggled to identify bodies without access to DNA kits.

The handover brings the number of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel to 225, only 75 of which have been identified by families, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It is unclear if those returned were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war, died in Israeli custody as detainees or were recovered from Gaza by troops during the war.

The bodies returned had been “torn apart and exhumed,” Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said in a post on X.

“Their flesh had melted, their faces erased by fire, leaving behind only bones and teeth,” he said.

The Israeli military has previously told The Associated Press that all bodies returned so far are those of combatants, a claim the AP was unable to verify. The military has said it operates in accordance with international law.

Al-Bursh said recently that many of the bodies handed over appear to be fighters or others killed during the 2023 attack. Several relatives who have identified the bodies of family members said they weren’t fighters.

Warning to Hamas

A senior U.S. official and a second source familiar with negotiations said that in messages passed to Hamas by mediators on Wednesday, Israel warned the militant group that its fighters had 24 hours to leave the yellow zone or face strikes.

That deadline passed Thursday evening, after which the senior U.S. official said “Israel will enforce the ceasefire and engage Hamas targets behind the yellow line.” Hamas did not respond to a request for comment.

On Friday, Shifa hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmiya said that one person had been killed by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza. Israel’s military said its troops had fired after the person approached troops in a way that posed a threat.

In a new assessment released Friday, the United Nations said satellite photos taken in early October show that 81 percent of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or otherwise damaged in the conflict.

Government officials from eight Arab and Muslim nations will gather in Istanbul on Monday to discuss the next steps for Gaza, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Friday.

Teen killed

In the central West Bank town of Silwad on Friday, mourners thronged the streets for the funeral of Yamen Hamed, 15, who Palestinian health officials say was shot by an Israeli soldier overnight. Samed Yousef Hamed kissed his son goodbye.

Samed said his son left home Thursday to hang out with friends. Soon after, he learned the teen had been injured and Israel’s army was preventing an ambulance from reaching him. Ahed Smirat, the ambulance driver who tried to reach Hamed following the shooting, told the AP that troops held him up multiple times. By the time they let him through, troops told him the teen had died, he said.

Israel’s military called the teen a “terrorist” and said troops had fired believing that he was holding an explosive, but did not provide any evidence to support that characterization. Hamed’s funeral was Friday.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. AP reporter Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war