Israel returned bodies of 80 dead Palestinians in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said today.

Israel said it would return the bodies after confirming they were not Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.

The ministry said the bodies were buried and authorities recorded details to facilitate their later identification. Gaza authorities were trying to determine when and where these people died and who they were.

The Israeli government says the Gaza offensive aims to destroy Hamas, despite global calls for a ceasefire in the 11-week war. Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages on October 7, the deadliest day in Israeli history.

Palestinian health authorities say the Israeli strikes have killed some 21,000 people and there are fears thousands more are buried in the rubble. Nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been expelled from their homes, including multiple times.

An Israeli army spokesman said the bodies were transported to Israel during the war “for identification procedures as part of our efforts to locate hostages and missing persons.”

“Difficulties in identifying those killed necessitate the transfer of these bodies to Israel for forensic identification,” and that this complies with “routine analysis that meets internationally recognized forensic standards” to rule out their identification as Israeli hostages. representative.