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Hamas The search for hostage bodies expanded to new areas in Gaza Strip Sunday, Palestinian group said, a day later egypt A team of experts and heavy equipment were deployed to help recover the bodies.
Under a fragile US-brokered ceasefire on October 10, Hamas is expected to return all remains Israel Hostages as soon as possible. Israel agreed to return 15 bodies of Palestinians for each body of hostages.
So far Israel has sent back the bodies of 195 Palestinians. Hamas has since returned 18 bodies of hostages, but has failed to release any over the past five days.
An Egyptian team in Gaza
An Egyptian team and heavy equipment, including an excavator and bulldozer, entered Gaza on Saturday to help search for the bodies of hostages, part of efforts by international mediators to consolidate the cease-fire, two Egyptian officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Khalil al-Haya, the head of Hamas in Gaza, said the Palestinian group had begun searching new areas for the bodies of 13 hostages, according to comments shared by the group early Sunday.
us President donald trump Warned on Saturday that he was “keeping a very close eye” to ensure that Hamas returns more bodies within the next 48 hours. “Some bodies are difficult to access, but other bodies they can bring back now and, for some reason, they can’t,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Al-Haya, who is also Hamas’s top negotiator, told an Egyptian media outlet last week that efforts to recover the bodies faced challenges because of the massive destruction that left them buried deep underground.
Four people injured in Israeli attack in central Gaza
Israeli forces attacked the central Nussirat refugee camp in Gaza on Saturday night for the second time in a week, according to the Awda hospital, which received the injured.
The Israeli military claimed it targeted militants affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group who were planning to attack Israeli soldiers.
Islamic Jihad, the second largest terrorist group in Gaza, has denied that it is preparing any attack.
Hamas described the attack as a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to sabotage Trump’s efforts to end the war.
This is the same area that Israel targeted in a series of attacks on October 19, when the army accused Hamas militants of killing two Israeli soldiers. That day, Israel launched dozens of deadly strikes across Gaza, killing at least 36 Palestinians, including women and children, according to strip health officials. This was the most serious challenge to the fragile armistice.
Saturday’s attack in Nusairat came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left for Israel, the latest in a series of visits to Israel by top US officials and a new center for civil and military coordination that is attempting to monitor the ceasefire. US Vice President JD Vance was in Israel earlier this week, and US envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were also in Israel.
Rubio said Saturday en route to Qatar that Israel, the US and other brokers of the Gaza ceasefire agreement are sharing information to disrupt any threat and that this allowed them to identify a potentially imminent attack last weekend.
About 200 US troops are working at the coordination center, along with the Israeli military and delegations from other countries, planning the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza.
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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.