Hamas has announced that it has returned all the bodies it has been able to locate, following the delivery of the remains of two more hostages. Despite these efforts, the fate of 19 individuals remains uncertain.

According to Israel, nine of the 28 identified deceased captives have been returned by the group thus far.

Earlier this evening, the Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that they received two caskets, believed to contain the bodies of hostages, from Hamas in Gaza City.

On Wednesday, Hamas’s armed wing indicated that retrieving the remaining bodies would necessitate ‘significant effort and specialised equipment.’

Hamas released a statement asserting, “The resistance has fulfilled the agreement by returning all of its living prisoners and any bodies it could find.”

‘The remaining bodies require major efforts and special equipment to retrieve, and we are working hard to close this file.’ 

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military said the Red Cross was en route to a meeting point in the northern Gaza Strip to receive several bodies. 

Hamas says it has returned all the bodies it can locate after handing over the remains of two more hostages tonight – but 19 loved ones are still unaccounted for. Pictured: Hamas militants stand guard as Red Cross vehicles transport the bodies of hostages

A Red Cross vehicle transports the bodies of hostages who were held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023, attack, after they were handed over by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostage-prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, October 15

The IDF confirmed that it collected two caskets containing the apparent bodies of hostages from Hamas in Gaza City earlier this evening

Vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) transporting remains of Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas leave in Gaza City

Bodies of two Israeli hostages are handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas

It did not specify how many, but Hamas’ armed wing said it would hand over two.

Under the ceasefire agreement, the remains were supposed to be returned by Monday. 

Israel has called the delays a breach of the deal, saying yesterday that the Rafah crossing would remain closed and that aid into Gaza would be reduced until all bodies were returned.

Israel had already threatened to keep Rafah shut and slow aid deliveries, arguing Hamas was returning bodies too slowly – jeopardising the fragile truce that has halted two years of devastating warfare in Gaza and freed all living hostages held by Hamas. 

However, the militant group returned more Israeli bodies overnight. An Israeli security official said preparations were underway to reopen Rafah to Gazan civilians, while another said 600 aid trucks would soon be allowed in.

Hamas’ armed wing confirmed it would hand over two more bodies at 10 pm (1900 GMT) on Wednesday.

Seeking to maintain pressure, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would consider allowing Israel to resume fighting in Gaza if Hamas failed to uphold the ceasefire deal he brokered.

Pictured:  Palestinians walk in an intersection surrounded by buildings destroyed during two years of Israeli army bombardments in Gaza City

The dispute over the return of bodies still threatens the ceasefire, alongside unresolved issues such as Hamas’ refusal to disarm or relinquish control

Israel says the next phase of the truce requires Hamas to cede power – demands the group has so far rejected. It has instead launched a security crackdown in Gaza, including public executions and clashes with local clans

‘Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word. If Israel could go in and knock the crap out of them, they’d do that,’ Trump told CNN in a brief phone call when asked what would happen if Hamas refused to disarm.

Hamas returned four bodies confirmed as dead hostages on Monday and another four late on Tuesday, though Israeli authorities said one of those was not a hostage.

The dispute over the return of bodies still threatens the ceasefire, alongside unresolved issues such as Hamas’ refusal to disarm or relinquish control. 

Israel says the next phase of the truce requires Hamas to cede power – demands the group has so far rejected. It has instead launched a security crackdown in Gaza, including public executions and clashes with local clans.

Longer-term elements of the ceasefire plan – such as how Gaza will be governed, the composition of an international stabilisation force, and moves toward a Palestinian state – remain unclear.

Nineteen bodies of hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, though some may be unrecoverable due to the destruction. An international task force is meant to locate and retrieve them.

When militants abducted Guy Iluz (pictured) during Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, his last words to his family were recorded in a phone call: ‘Dad, I love you. They shot me’

Doris Liber and Michel Iluz, the parents of Israeli hostage Guy Illouz mourn during his funeral in Raanana, Israel October 15, 2025

The deal also requires Israel to return the bodies of 360 Palestinians. The first group of 45 was handed over on Tuesday and is being identified, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israelis celebrated on Monday as the final 20 living hostages returned home under the first phase of the ceasefire, while Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of around 2,000 prisoners and detainees.

Over the next two days, Hamas said it also released the bodies of eight hostages, though the Israeli military later said one was not that of a hostage.

The first four bodies returned to Israel were named as Guy Iluz, 26; Bipin Joshi, 33; Yossi Sharabi, 54; and Daniel Peretz, 22.

When militants abducted Guy Iluz during Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, his last words to his family were recorded in a phone call: ‘Dad, I love you. They shot me.’

On Wednesday, his family finally laid him to rest – 740 days after the unprecedented assault – after his remains were returned under the ceasefire deal.

His father, Michel Iluz, joined thousands of mourners at the cemetery in Raanana, north of Tel Aviv, where the 26-year-old guitarist lived and worked as a sound engineer.

‘How does one eulogise a son, a beloved child?’ he said, according to a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Relatives of hostages whose bodies are still in Gaza Strip shout slogans calling for their release at the plaza known as hostages square, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025

‘Welcome Back Home’ sign is seen in Habima Square on October 14, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel

‘It’s hard for me to see or imagine the future without you. They snatched you from me – they murdered you – they kidnapped me and stole my identity and murdered my soul and heart.’

He described identifying his son’s body at Israel’s forensic institute:

‘They removed the white sheet, and the first thing I saw was that smile of yours – that optimism, serenity and nobility that so characterised you. I touched you, tried to smell you, caressed every bone in your body. 

‘Rest now, my sweet one, rest after a journey of two years through worlds unknown to us. I love you, my Guyshuk, my beloved firstborn son.’

Guy Iluz was the first of the four hostages returned on Monday to be buried.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Hamas and allied Palestinian factions on October 7, 2023, the last 20 surviving captives returned home on Monday under a ceasefire agreement brokered by President Trump.

So far, Hamas has handed back the remains of seven of the 28 known deceased hostages – along with an eighth body which Israel says did not belong to a hostage.

Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages in the October 7 attack. The ensuing war has killed more than 67,600 Palestinians in Gaza – mostly women and children – according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but maintains detailed casualty records considered generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.