JERUSALEM: Hamas said it was committed to the US-brokered agreement that halted its war with Israel, and to returning all the bodies of hostages still unaccounted for under the ruins of Gaza.
Responding to a call from the militant group for assistance with locating the bodies of the 19 hostages, buried under the rubble alongside an untold number of Palestinians, Turkiye sent specialists to help in the search.
Under a ceasefire agreement spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine of 28 known deceased hostages — along with another body, which Israel said was not that of a former hostage.
In exchange, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from its jails and halted the military campaign that it launched in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed on Thursday his determination to “secure the return of all hostages” after his defense minister warned that the military “will resume fighting” if Hamas failed to do so.
