As Gaza ceasefire hinges on return of remains, Waltz says US will help find missing, including Americans

He ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza still held Thursday despite tensions over the remains of missing hostages, including two American citizens, and sporadic violence in the Palestinian enclave since the US. peace agreement It came into effect almost a week ago.

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday that U.S. personnel would be part of the effort to recover the remains of the 19 hostages who have not yet been handed over.

Hamas returned the bodies of two more deceased Israeli hostages on Wednesday night, bringing the total number returned to nine. But as videos continued to emerge showing the staggering scale of destruction in Gaza, the group said I couldn’t deliver any more remains. without specialized equipment to find and recover the bodies.

Israeli soldier Captain Daniel Peretz was among former hostages buried in solemn ceremonies on Wednesday after his family finally received his body, which had been held in Gaza for more than two years. Peretz died fighting Hamas during the attack on October 7, 2023. For his family, that day brought new pain.

“It’s a new truth that I have to face,” said his sister Adina Peretz. “It’s proof, proof that you’re really gone.”

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which represents Israeli hostage families, said this week that the peace process should not move forward until all the bodies are returned.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, in a social media post on Monday, called Hamas’ initial delivery of just four bodies “a violation of the agreement,” adding that “any delay or deliberate evasion will be considered a serious violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly.”

But senior U.S. advisers who spoke to reporters Wednesday in Washington urged patience, citing difficulties in recovering the remains. They said U.S. officials were not at a point where they believed either side had violated the peace agreement.

“Many of the Hamas commanders responsible for burying these Israeli hostages are no longer alive,” Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin told News themezone on Wednesday. “They were killed by the Israelis.”

Given that fact, and the dangerous conditions inside the Palestinian territory, where there are unexploded bombs among the piles of rubble, Baskin said that “some of the deceased hostages may never be found, and that is part of the reality, but we have to make sure that Hamas is doing everything it can to do that.”

President Trump himself weighed in on the matter Wednesday, telling reporters that the recovery efforts, which are expected to be joined by international search and rescue experts at some point, were “a horrific process.”

“I almost hate talking about it,” Trump said. “But they’re digging. They’re actually digging, in areas where they’re digging, and they’re finding a lot of bodies. Then they have to separate the bodies.”

Waltz, President Trump’s former national security adviser and current UN ambassador, noted on News Thursday that two American citizens were still among the hostages killed in Gaza.

“We will do everything we can to get them out,” Walz said, adding that there was “an entire task force” that included senior American officials, along with 200 American soldiers, in the region “to help with this and with the facilitation of aid, and the Israelis are absolutely focused on it. So, they need heavy equipment. They need specialized equipment. But we also have to understand that if this ceasefire goes through collapses, fighting begins, that will make it much more difficult to find these loved ones and rescue them. outside.”

The remains of American-Israeli citizens. it’s chen and Omer Neutraboth members of the Israel Defense Forces, have not yet been returned from Gaza.

Türkiye has offered its assistance in locating and recovering the remains of hostages still in Gaza, given the country’s extensive experience following the recent catastrophic earthquakes. No firm plans for such a deployment have been confirmed, either from Turkey or any other country, but Turkish media said only 81 people from that country could be sent to the region, including ten specialized search and rescue units.

Israel said it would return the bodies of 15 Palestinians in exchange for the remains of all hostages returned by Hamas as part of the peace deal, and the Red Cross has been transferring Palestinian remains to Gaza in recent days. But those returns have also been mired in controversy.

“We saw with our own eyes clear signs of torture and execution,” Sameh Hamad, a member of a commission tasked with receiving the bodies at a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told The News. “They had their hands and feet handcuffed and their eyes blindfolded.”

Hamas said in a statement Thursday that the “horrifying scenes seen on the bodies” handed over by Israel included “signs of torture, mutilation and field executions.”

The group called on human rights organizations and the United Nations “to document these heinous crimes, open an urgent and thorough investigation and bring the occupation leaders to trial before the competent international courts.”

Former Israeli hostages have also spoken of torture at the hands of their Hamas captors in Gaza, including Keith Siegel, who was detained for more than a year.

He told News 60 Minutes in March that he witnessed the sexual assault of other hostages by Hamas militants, and that he was personally beaten, psychologically tortured, and humiliated by his captors.

Agnes Reau contributed to this report.

In:

• Hostage situation
• Hamas
• Israel
• Mike Waltz
• Cease-fire
• donald trump
• Loop
• Middle East
• Benjamin Netanyahu