Hamas said Sunday it had expanded its search for the bodies of hostages to new areas of the Gaza Strip, a day after Egypt sent experts and heavy equipment to assist in the recovery effort.
Under the fragile U.S.-brokered cease-fire, reached on Oct. 10, Hamas is expected to return all of the remains Israeli hostages as soon as possible. Israel agreed to give back 15 bodies of Palestinians for every body of a hostage.
Thus far, Israel has sent back the bodies of 195 Palestinians. Hamas has since returned 18 bodies of hostages, but failed to release any in the past five days.
An Egyptian team and heavy equipment, including an excavator and bulldozers, entered Gaza Saturday to help search for the hostages’ bodies, part of efforts by international mediators to shore up the cease-fire, two Egyptian officials said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Hamas' chief in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, said the Palestinian resistance 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.
