After the Hamas returned the remains that don’t belong to still-missing hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the group was violating the terms of the ceasefire, Reuters reported.
Hamas said it was acting within the terms of the ceasefire and was doing everything it could to find the remains of the prisoners, but that it was being hampered by a lack of equipment to identify the bodies. Netanyahu said the bodies returned by the group did not belong to any of the 13 missing prisoners. The Israeli prime minister plans to meet with the leaders of the armed forces to decide on the next steps.
A Hamas spokesman said finding the remains was challenging given the scale of the destruction in Gaza. However, the group said it would continue the search and use all means to find the bodies of the dead prisoners to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have called on Netanyahu to respond firmly to Hamas. However,
it is clear that any action would likely have to be coordinated with the United States,
which has been working to broker a fragile ceasefire. US President Donald Trump has said he will watch the return of the dead prisoners very closely.
The search for the remains of the prisoners has intensified after heavy equipment was brought in from Egypt. Masked Hamas fighters stood nearby as the bulldozers worked. Some of the bodies are believed to be in a network of tunnels built by the group.
The enclave is also being searched for the remains of Palestinians killed in the two-year war. Gaza health authorities have said that 68,000 people have died in Israeli strikes, with thousands more missing.
Explosions can still be heard in Gaza, as Israeli forces continue to dismantle areas where they are still present. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on the 25th of October that soldiers would continue to dismantle Hamas tunnels, and that about 60 percent of them were still intact.
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