Final Countdown to Bring Them Home
Hamas Claims to Have Recovered Up to 9 Hostage Bodies
Hamas notifies mediators of ongoing efforts to recover bodies of Israeli hostages in Gaza, with plans to transfer them to the Red Cross amid US pressure for expedited return.
Hamas has notified mediating countries that it is actively engaged in the process of recovering the bodies of between seven and nine slain Israeli hostages, whose locations in various parts of the Gaza Strip are reportedly known to the organization.
The report, which cites the Saudi-owned Al-Sharq news channel and remains unconfirmed by other sources, comes amid growing international pressure, particularly from the United States, to expedite the return of the deceased captives.
Bodies to be Handed Over to Red Cross
According to the Arabic report, the bodies of the slain hostages will be delivered to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) immediately following their extraction. No specific timeline for the handover was provided.
The report suggests that Hamas’s military wing is utilizing heavy machinery, which has recently arrived in Gaza, to assist with the excavation and retrieval efforts.
This effort follows an ultimatum issued by U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend, who stated on Saturday night that Hamas must
"begin to rapidly return the bodies of the hostages who have been killed, including two Americans, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action." Trump set a 48-hour deadline, which is set to expire this evening.
Hamas Demanded IDF Withdrawal for Recovery
The Saudi report also claimed that Hamas, through the mediators, recently requested that the
"Israeli army withdraw from certain designated areas outside the yellow line" in the southern Gaza Strip to "complete the search and rescue operations."
This indicates a potential linkage between the retrieval of the bodies and tactical disengagement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in specific zones.
Earlier today, heavy equipment, including 13 Egyptian-owned trucks, was reported to have arrived at the headquarters of the Egyptian committee in central Gaza, ostensibly to provide the heavy machinery needed for the search and recovery of the deceased hostages.
The report of the recovery effort surfaces as Israeli society continues to express anguish over what many view as Hamas’s "monstrous" exploitation of the families' grief through time-wasting tactics regarding the hostages, both living and deceased.