Hamas expands search for bodies of Israeli hostages in Gaza
Hamas has expanded its search for the bodies of hostages in new areas in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian group said, a day after Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help retrieve them.
Under the fragile US-brokered ceasefire reached on October 10, Hamas is expected to return all of the remains of Israeli hostages as soon as possible. Israel agreed to give back 15 bodies of Palestinians for every body of a hostage.
Israel has sent back the bodies of 195 Palestinians so far, while Hamas has returned 15 bodies of hostages. In the past five days, Hamas has failed to release any.
An Egyptian team and heavy equipment, including an excavator and bulldozers, entered Gaza on Saturday to help search for the hostages’ bodies, part of efforts by international mediators to shore up the ceasefire.
Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, said the Palestinian group started searching in new areas for 13 bodies of hostages that remain in the enclave, according to comments shared by the group early on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that he is “watching very closely” to ensure Hamas returns more bodies within the next 48 hours.
“Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Al-Hayya, who is also Hamas’s top negotiator, told an Egyptian media outlet last week that efforts to retrieve the bodies faced challenges because of the massive destruction, burying them deep underground.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces struck the central Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza on Saturday night – the second time in a week – according to Awda Hospital.
The Israeli military claimed it targeted militants associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group who were planning to attack Israeli troops.
Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in Gaza, denied it was preparing for an attack.
Hamas called the strike a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement and accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to sabotage Mr Trump’s efforts to end the war.
It was the same area that Israel targeted in a series of strikes on October 19, after the military accused Hamas militants of killing two Israeli soldiers. That day, Israel launched dozens of deadly strikes across Gaza, killing at least 36 Palestinians, including women and children, according to local health authorities.
Saturday’s strike in Nuseirat came a few hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left Israel, the latest in a series of White House officials to visit Israel and a new centre for civilian and military co-ordination that is attempting to oversee the ceasefire.
US Vice-President JD Vance was in Israel earlier this week, and American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, were also in Israel.
Mr Rubio said on Saturday that Israel, the US and the other mediators of the Gaza ceasefire deal are sharing information to disrupt any threats and that allowed them to identify a possible impending attack last weekend.
Around 200 US troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries at the co-ordination centre, planning the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza.
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