Hamas Returns Four Bodies, Likely Unnamed Hostages

IDF troops brought four caskets that were said to hold the bodies of dead hostages to Israel on Tuesday night, after the government accused Hamas of breaking the ceasefire agreement and threatened to withhold aid from Gaza.

The bodies have been identified as Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi, Uriel Baruch, and Eitan Levy; the fourth body is Khalil Dawas, a Palestinian from the West Bank’s Aqabat Jabr camp, near Jericho.

The bodies, which Hamas gave to the Red Cross earlier on Tuesday before they were transferred to the Israeli military, were not identified by Hamas. They were taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification, a process that officials say could take up to two days.

The handover happened after Israel accused Hamas of violating the recently implemented ceasefire by withholding the bodies of deceased hostages. Hamas released the final 20 living hostages on Monday, as well as the bodies of four dead captives, but was still holding 24 deceased hostages.

If the bodies that were brought to Israel late on Tuesday are indeed identified as deceased hostages, it would mean that 20 bodies of captives remain in the Strip. Earlier this year, Hamas gave Israel a body that it said belonged to slain hostage Shiri Bibas, which was soon identified as a Palestinian from Gaza. Bibas’s remains were later handed over to Israel.

Hamas has informed the mediators that it will transfer four more bodies of deceased hostages to Israel on Wednesday, a Middle Eastern diplomat and a second source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

The controversy surrounding the release of deceased hostages could threaten to derail the ceasefire, just over a day after celebrations erupted across Israel at the release of the remaining living hostages. U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration brokered the deal, lauded it in a landmark Knesset address, then flew to Egypt for a peace summit in the agreement’s wake.

The agreement stipulated that Hamas return all 48 hostages, living and dead, within 72 hours of the deal taking effect, a period that began on Friday. But the possibility arose that there would be a delay in locating the dead hostages’ bodies in the war-torn Strip.

Now, disputes reminiscent of past ceasefires are resurfacing, as small groups of hostages are let out in phases amid fear that the agreement could collapse. Israel is claiming Hamas broke the deal by delaying the return of the dead captives. And families of those held in Gaza are fuming that celebrations are premature, given that the terrorists who perpetrated the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that launched the war are still holding hostages.

“What we feared is now happening before our eyes,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote in a letter to U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, a key broker of the ceasefire. “Only four deceased hostages are coming home today. Only four families will be able to bring their loved ones to the dignified burial they so deserve and begin to find closure. How is this possible? How can we accept that the others remain behind?”

“We must ensure that all remaining hostages come home. We cannot rest, and we know you will not rest, until every last hostage is returned,” the letter continued.

The forum also demanded a meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. And it urged the public to keep up its activism for the captives’ return, after multiple government officials reportedly ordered signs pressing for the hostages’ release taken down.