German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday that he spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the ceasefire in Gaza.
“We agreed that the ceasefire in Gaza must hold. People there need safe humanitarian access, and Hamas must finally return the remains of the last hostages,” Merz wrote in a post on X.
Under the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, Hamas was required to return all hostages in its possession within 72 hours.
The group released all 20 living hostages it held in time, but has stalled on the return of the deceased hostages.
On Thursday, the bodies of hostages Sahar Baruch and Amiram Cooper were returned to Israel by Hamas. A day later, the terrorist organization handed over three bodies which were determined to not belong to any of the remaining 11 hostages.
Hamas has demanded to be provided with heavy engineering equipment, which the group claims is necessary to retrieve the remaining bodies.