Two coffins, said to be holding the remains of deceased hostages, escorted by IDF troops, crossed the border into the State of Israel on Thursday after being transferred to IDF troops in Gaza by the Red Cross.
Upon arrival in Israeli territory, a short military ceremony was held, after which the caskets were transferred to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) for identification.
Kibbutz Nir Oz announced that one of the murdered hostages has been identified as Amiram Cooper. The Prime Minister's Office announced that the other murdered hostage has been identified as Sahar Baruch.
The Prime Minister's Office stated: "Following the completion of the identification process by the National Center of Forensic Medicine, in cooperation with the Israel Police and the IDF Rabbinate, IDF representatives informed the families of fallen hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, of blessed memory, that their loved ones have been returned to Israel and that their identification has been completed."
"The Government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Cooper and Sahar families and all the families of the fallen hostages.
"The Government and the entire establishment for the missing and the captives of the State of Israel are determined, committed, and working tirelessly to return all of our fallen hostages for proper burial in their country.
"The Hamas terrorist organization is required to uphold its commitments to the mediators and return the fallen hostages as part of the implementation of the agreement. We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen hostages, every last one of them.
"May their memory be for a blessing," the PMO statement concluded.
Eleven hostages' bodies are still held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
On Tuesday morning, Hamas announced it would not return the body of a hostage as it had promised to do, following an IDF strike in Gaza in response to an incident in which Hamas terrorists fired on Israeli forces conducting engineering operations in the Rafah area.
Earlier on Tuesday, it was revealed that the body handed over to Israel the night before, as part of a commitment to transfer one of the 13 hostages, did not belong to a newly identified hostage. Instead, it consisted of remains belonging to hostage Ofir Sarfati, whose body had already been returned to Israel two years ago.
A forensic examination conducted at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine confirmed the identity of the remains.