Severe destruction across the Gaza Strip has made it nearly impossible for Hamas to locate and recover Israeli hostage remains buried under rubble. An Egyptian convoy carrying bulldozers and excavators entered Gaza on Saturday to aid recovery efforts.
The U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement requires Israel to return 15 Palestinian prisoners’ bodies for every Israeli hostage body recovered. So far, Israel has returned 195 Palestinian corpses, while Hamas has delivered 18 Israeli remains. Earlier this month, Hamas released all 20 surviving hostages.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he is “watching very closely” to ensure the bodies are returned within 48 hours. He wrote on Truth Social, “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now—and for some reason, they are not.”
Search Expands as Rubble Blocks Recovery Efforts
Hamas has failed to recover additional bodies over the past five days because of the widespread devastation in Gaza. The group’s top negotiator told Egyptian media that most bodies lie deep beneath collapsed structures, requiring specialized machinery to extract.
Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya announced on Sunday that the group expanded search operations to new areas to locate the remaining 13 bodies. Earlier, a Turkish convoy entered Gaza to remove debris in Khan Younis, where officials estimate 800 tonnes of rubble accumulated after Israeli airstrikes.
Despite limited equipment and blocked roads, crews continue clearing collapsed buildings to speed up recovery operations under international supervision.
Israel Launches New Strike on Gaza Refugee Camp
Israeli forces bombed the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday night, injuring at least four people, according to Awda Hospital. The strike marked Israel’s second attack on the camp within a week.
The Israeli military claimed it targeted Islamic Jihad operatives preparing assaults on Israeli troops, but the group denied the allegation. Hamas condemned the strike as a direct violation of the ceasefire and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to sabotage the truce.
Netanyahu defended the action at his weekly Cabinet meeting. “We act to neutralize threats before they unfold, as we did yesterday in Gaza,” he said. The renewed violence threatens to unravel fragile ceasefire efforts amid ongoing humanitarian and recovery challenges.
