Hamas expands search for remaining Israeli hostages’ bodies as Egypt joins effort

Hamas expanded its search for the remaining bodies of Israeli hostages in new areas in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the terrorist group said, a day after Egypt deployed a team of experts to help retrieve the bodies.

A convoy of trucks and heavy equipment, including an excavator and bulldozers, entered southern Gaza overnight, part of efforts by international mediators to shore up the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, two Egyptian officials told the Associated Press, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Footage by the Agence France-Presse news agency showed the convoy in Khan Yunis in the south of Gaza.

Under the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire, reached on Oct. 10, Hamas is expected to return all of the remains of Israeli hostages as soon as possible. Israel agreed to give back 15 bodies of Palestinians for every body of a hostage that is returned.

Thus far, Hamas has returned 18 bodies of hostages, but in the past five days, it has failed to release any. Israel has sent back the bodies of 195 Palestinians.

Hamas’ chief in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, said the Palestinian group started searching in new areas for 13 bodies of hostages that remain in the enclave, according to comments shared by the group early Sunday.

President Trump warned Saturday that he was “watching very closely” to ensure Hamas returns more bodies within the next 48 hours. “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Al-Hayya, who is also Hamas’ top negotiator, told an Egyptian media outlet last week that efforts to retrieve the bodies faced challenges because of the massive destruction, burying them deep underground.

Israeli strikes wounded four in central Gaza

Israeli forces struck the central Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza on Saturday night, for the second time in a week, according to Awda Hospital that received the wounded.

The Israeli military claimed it targeted militants associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group who were planning to attack Israeli troops.

Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza, denied it was preparing for an attack.

Hamas called the strike a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to sabotage Mr. Trump’s efforts to end the war.

It was the same area that Israel targeted in a series of strikes on Oct. 19, after the military 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 the strip’s Hamas-run health authorities. It was the most serious challenge to the fragile ceasefire.

Netanyahu defended the military’s actions, saying that Israel will not tolerate attacks against them and will “respond according to our own discretion against attacks.”

“Of course, we also thwart dangers as they are being formed, before they are carried out, as we did just yesterday in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.

Netanyahu also stressed that Israel remained in charge of its own security, after accusations last week that the Trump administration was dictating terms of Israel’s response to security concerns in Gaza. Vice President JD Vance denied any such speculation during his visit.