Hamas has deployed bulldozers in the Gaza Strip to search for the remains of deceased hostages, a move intended to reinforce its precarious ceasefire agreement with Israel. The militant group affirmed its commitment to the deal’s terms, including the handover of bodies.
This action comes after a stark warning from U.S. President Donald Trump, who stated he would green-light Israel to resume military action if Hamas failed to return all 28 hostage bodies. So far, Hamas has delivered the remains of nine individuals, plus a tenth body Israel claimed was not a hostage.
Hamas blamed Israel for the delay, stating some hostage remains are in tunnels or buildings destroyed by Israeli forces, requiring heavy machinery for retrieval. The group also claimed Israel has not allowed new bulldozers into the Gaza Strip, hindering efforts.
Much of Gaza’s heavy equipment was destroyed during the recent conflict, leaving limited resources for clearing the extensive rubble across the region.
On Friday, two bulldozers plowed up pits in the earth as Hamas searched for hostages’ remains in Hamad City, a complex of apartment towers in the city of Khan Younis. Israeli forces repeatedly bombarded the towers during the war, toppling some, and troops conducted a weeklong raid there in March 2024, fighting militants.
Hamas urged mediators to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, expedite the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and start reconstruction. It also called for work to “start immediately” on setting up a committee of Palestinian independents who will run the Gaza Strip and for Israeli troops to continue pulling back from agreed-upon areas.
The ceasefire plan introduced by Trump had called for all hostages — living and dead — to be handed over by a deadline that expired Monday. But under the deal, if that didn’t happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel “will not compromise” and demanded that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal about the return of hostages’ bodies.
Hamas has assured the U.S. through intermediaries that it’s working to return dead hostages. American officials say retrieval of the bodies is hampered by the scope of the devastation, coupled with the presence of dangerous, unexploded ordnance.
The militant group has also told mediators that some bodies are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.
At a news conference with his German counterpart in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan expressed concerns that Israel might use Hamas’ “lack of equipment” to recover bodies as a pretext to resume hostilities.
Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages on Monday. In exchange, Israel freed around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
In Israel, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum — which groups many families of hostages — said they will continue holding weekly rallies until all remains are returned.
Israel has also returned to Gaza the bodies of 90 Palestinians for burial. Israel is expected to turn over more bodies, though officials have not said how many are in its custody or how many will be returned.
