GAZA — Hamas said Sunday it has expanded its search for the bodies of Israeli hostages in Gaza, a day after Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy machinery to help recover the remains under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.
The truce, which took effect on Oct. 10, requires Hamas to return the remains of all Israeli hostages as soon as possible, while Israel is to hand over 15 Palestinian bodies for each one.
So far, Hamas has returned the remains of 15 hostages but none in the past five days.
Israel has returned 195 Palestinian bodies, many of which remain unidentified.
Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s chief in Gaza, said the group began searching new areas for the remaining 13 hostages, stressing that the process is complicated by the extensive destruction across the enclave.
An Egyptian team, including excavators and bulldozers, entered Gaza on Saturday as part of Cairo’s efforts to bolster the ceasefire, two Egyptian officials said on condition of anonymity.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned Saturday that he was “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 social media.
Meanwhile, Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire after an overnight strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said it targeted militants from Palestinian Islamic Jihad who were planning attacks. Islamic Jihad denied the claim.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the strike, saying Israel has the right to “thwart dangers as they are being formed,” while rejecting suggestions that the U.S. is dictating Israel’s security decisions.
The Nuseirat strike came just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio departed Israel following talks at a new coordination center overseeing the ceasefire.
Around 200 U.S. troops are stationed there alongside Israeli and international counterparts to support Gaza’s stabilization and reconstruction efforts. — Agencies
