US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Wednesday pointed out the importance of the release of the bodies of deceased hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, including two Americans.
“As grateful as I am for the 20 living hostages set free by President Trump’s deal, I will not forget that Hamas is still holding remains of several hostages they murdered, including Americans Itay Chen & Omer Neutra. Pray they too come home-NOW!” Huckabee wrote in a post on X.
As of Monday, when the 20 living hostages were freed by Hamas, there were 28 bodies of hostages being held in the Strip.
Hamas, under the terms of Trump’s peace plan, was to have freed all the bodies of the deceased hostages by Monday afternoon, but so far it has only released the bodies of nine hostages. One body handed over by the group, initially thought to have been that of a hostage, turned out to be that of a Gazan.
On Wednesday night, Hamas handed over two more bodies, but also claimed that there are no more deceased hostages in its possession.
"We met our end of the agreement, we released all the living hostages, and what we have as far as deceased hostages. Regarding the rest, we will need great efforts and special tools to find them," the organization claimed in a statement.
Israeli officials have informed the Trump administration that progress on the Gaza ceasefire agreement cannot continue unless Hamas increases efforts to recover the bodies of Israeli hostages, according to a report by Axios.
According to the report, a potential breakdown in the deal was narrowly avoided after Hamas returned five bodies over the past two days, raising the total number recovered to nine. This led Israel to postpone a planned reduction in aid shipments to Gaza and keep the Egypt-Gaza border crossing open.