Hamas said it was committed to the US-brokered agreement that halted its war with Israel, and to returning all the bodies of hostages still unaccounted for under the ruins of Gaza.
Responding to a call from the militant group for assistance with locating the bodies of the 19 hostages, buried under the rubble alongside an untold number of Palestinians, Turkey sent specialists to help in the search.
Under a ceasefire agreement spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine of 28 known deceased hostages — along with another body, which Israel said was not that of a former hostage.
Photo: Reuters
In exchange, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from its jails and halted its military campaign in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday reaffirmed his determination to “secure the return of all hostages” after his minister of defense warned that the military “will resume fighting” if Hamas failed to do so.
Hamas insisted on “its commitment to the agreement and its implementation, including its keenness to hand over all remaining corpses,” but added that the process “may require some time, as some of these corpses were buried in tunnels destroyed by the occupation, while others remain under the rubble of buildings it bombed and demolished.”
Turkey has deployed dozens of disaster relief specialists to help search for the bodies, but the families of the Israeli dead have fumed at Hamas’ inability to deliver their loved ones’ remains.
The main campaign group advocating for the hostages’ families demanded that Israel “immediately halt the implementation of any further stages of the agreement as long as Hamas continues to blatantly violate its obligations.”
Trump appeared to call for patience when it came to the bodies’ return, saying Hamas was “actually digging” for hostages’ remains, but later expressed frustration with the group’s conduct since the fighting halted.
“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” Trump said in an apparent reference to recent shootings of Palestinian civilians.
Since the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza under the ceasefire deal, Hamas has been tightening its grip on ruined cities, launching a crackdown and executing alleged collaborators in the street.
Clashes have also taken place between the group’s various security units and armed Palestinian clans, some of which are alleged to have Israeli backing.
The ceasefire deal has so far seen the war grind to a halt after two years of agony for the hostages’ families, and constant bombardment and hunger for Gazans.
The next phases of the truce should include the disarmament of Hamas, the offer of amnesty to Hamas leaders who decommission their weapons and establishing the governance of post-war Gaza.
The plan also calls for renewed aid provision, with international organizations awaiting the reopening of southern Gaza’s Rafah crossing.
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar said that preparations were being made for the strategic crossing and that he “hoped” it would reopen tomorrow.
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