OFFICIALS at Gaza’s largest functioning hospital said today that the bodies of 15 more Palestinians were returned from Israel, as exchanges outlined in last month’s fragile ceasefire went ahead despite continued violations of the truce by Israel.

This came a day after the United States, Israel’s biggest backer, proposed a draft plan for a “stabilisation” force for Gaza.

In the enclave, the International Committee of the Red Cross has transported 285 bodies held in Israeli custody to Gaza since last month’’s agreement was brokered, though health officials in Gaza have said identifying the remains is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits.

Israel has not disclosed how many bodies it is holding or where they were recovered, but has been returning 15 each time the remains of an Israeli hostage are returned from Gaza.

The 15 were returned to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Wednesday, a day after Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza handed over the body of Itay Chen, an Israeli soldier killed on October 7, 2023.

The exchanges are the central component of the initial phase of the US-brokered agreement which requires Hamas return all hostage remains as quickly as possible.

Hamas returned 20 living hostages to Israel on October 13. The group has since also returned the remains of 21 bodies.

Israeli officials have accused Hamas of handing over partial remains in some instances and staging the discovery of bodies in others and have used this as a pretext for attacks against Palestinians in Gaza.

Gazan health authorities have accused Israel of killing at least 239 Palestinians since the start of the ceasefire on October 10.

It has pushed to speed up the returns and in certain cases has said the remains were not those of hostages.

Hamas has said recovering bodies is complicated by the widespread devastation in Gaza and has returned one to three bodies every few days.

The next parts of the 20-point plan call for creating an international stabilisation force.

The US circulated a draft text for a UN security council resolution on Tuesday that would provide a mandate for this force in Gaza for at least two years.

The draft calls for the force to ensure “the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip” and “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”

The make-up of the force hasn’’t yet been finalised.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said: “What we believe is that whatever entity that is created in Gaza should have the legitimacy of a mandate from the security council.”