As part of the peace plan, Hamas was required to hand over all of the Israeli hostages, both those alive and the ones who had died in captivity. The 20 living hostages were returned but of the 28 deceased hostages, only 15 bodies have been returned.
This is a violation of the ceasefire agreement and both Israel and the United States believe Hamas is slow-walking this for their own purposes. On Saturday, president Trump issued a demand that Hamas comply with the deal. He suggested the delay had to do with their unwillingness to disarm and specifically said they had 48-hours to comply or else.
We have a very strong PEACE in the Middle East, and I believe it has a good chance of being EVERLASTING. Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action. Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their disarming, but when I said, “Both sides would be treated fairly,” that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely.
Trump's message was echoed by Sec. of State Rubio who met with the American families of two deceased hostages and vowed the US would not let this slide.
We will not forget the lives of the hostages who died in the captivity of Hamas. Today I met with the families of American citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra. We will not rest until their — and all — remains are returned. pic.twitter.com/wdxN9vLXZ8
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) October 25, 2025
Under the pressure to do something, it appears Hamas decided to put on a show.
As the 48-hour deadline neared, Hamas, accompanied by the ICRC, joined Egyptian teams authorised by Israel to search for remains beyond the line marking the Israeli military’s pullback inside Gaza. An Israeli spokesperson said the Egyptian team would use excavator machines and trucks in the search.
Footage published by Qatar’s Al Araby network appeared to show members of Hamas’s “Shadow Unit” – part of the group’s military wing tasked with guarding hostages – accompanying a Red Cross vehicle in al-Mawasi near Rafah, which lies outside Israeli military control. The news was later corroborated by Israeli and Palestinian media.
Hamas claimed it had found another body and promised to deliver it to Israel.
Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam brigades, said on Monday it would deliver the body of a deceased hostage at 9pm local time, Reuters reported. Israeli media confirmed the IDF was working with the Red Cross to receive the remains in the evening.
The partial remains were taken to Israel and identified as belonging to a hostage whose body had been recovered two years ago.
Israel's government said Tuesday that a set of partial hostage remains returned by Hamas the previous day belonged to a deceased hostage recovered by the military around two years ago, not one of those whose remains are still missing in Gaza. The prime minister's office called it a violation of the U.S.-brokered peace deal, and said it was considering its response.
"After completing the identification process this morning, it was found that last night remains belonging to the fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati, who had been returned from the Gaza Strip in a military operation about two years ago, were returned," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
"This constitutes a clear violation of the [Gaza peace] agreement" by Hamas, Netanyahu's office said, adding that the prime minister would meet with the heads of Israel's defense establishment, "during which Israel's steps in response to the violations will be discussed."
And that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that Hamas faked the discovery of the body. We know because the whole thing was caught on camera by an Israeli drone circling overhead.
A casket handed over by Hamas on Monday night to Israel contained the partial remains of Ofir Tzarfati, a hostage whose body was recovered by the military in early December 2023, Israeli officials said...
On Monday, Hamas brought the remains of Tzarfati out of a building and placed them in a hole it had dug in the ground in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. It then covered the body in dirt and pretended to uncover it for the first time in front of the Red Cross.
The entire incident was filmed by a military drone.
The full clip is about 15 minutes long but here's an edited version that gives the gist. Hamas can bee seen pulling the remains out of a building wrapped in a white sheet. They take it into a hole dug by an excavator and then cover it with dirt. The the excavator digs it up and as the remains are placed along the building the Red Cross is just turning up to see the discovery. Hooray for Pallywood!
Hamas are lying about our hostages and here’s the proof:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 28, 2025
Yesterday, Hamas terrorists were filmed removing body remains from a prepared structure and re-burying them nearby, before summoning Red Cross representatives to stage a false “discovery” for photographers.
Despite… pic.twitter.com/c9CkJo3msW
So the outcome of all this is that, to the outside world, Hamas appears to be making a good faith effort to uncover bodies buried under rubble and makes some slight progress to avoid completely ignoring Trump's deadline. That's how it was meant to look. Unfortunately, the drone revealed it was all a charade.
In reality, Hamas released partial remains of a deceased hostage, remains they clearly had been holding in reserve. They faked the discovery for the witnesses and the cameras so they can continue to claim a) we're trying and b) these bodies could be anywhere. But that's all a lie designed to stall for time.
Israelis are furious about this. Even the families of the hostages are demanding no more progress in the ceasefire until Hamas complies with the release of the dead.
“Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased hostages is held. Two weeks have passed since the deadline set in the agreement for the return of all 48 hostages, yet 13 remain in Hamas captivity,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
“The families urge the Government of Israel, the United States administration and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfills all of its obligations and returns every hostage to Israel,” said the main organization representing hostages’ families.
No reaction from Trump or Rubio to the IDF video yet but you can bet they are going to see it today if they haven't already.
Update: Hamas F'd around and it looks like they are about to find out.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ordered the military to conduct strikes in Gaza on Tuesday as the government accused Hamas of violating the cease-fire by firing on Israeli forces and declining to return the bodies of deceased hostages.
The decision “to immediately carry out forceful strikes in the Gaza Strip" was announced in a statement by Mr. Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday night.
“Hamas have violated the framework by not returning hostages and attacking our forces,” said David Mencer, a spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, on Tuesday night.
The firing on IDF troops is another story out today. Beege sent this to me earlier.
Israeli troops stationed in southern Gaza’s Rafah came under fire by terror operatives a short while ago, The Times of Israel has learned.
Troops returned fire toward the attackers. Palestinian media reports also Israeli artillery shelling in the Rafah area.
Hamas never planned to disarm. They are looking for any excuse to avoid it including, apparently, ending the ceasefire and resuming fighting.
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