As dispute over hostages’ bodies tests ceasefire, Israelis bury their dead

Israel identified the bodies of two more hostages Thursday, the Israeli military confirmed, after their remains were released from captivity in Gaza as part of a fragile U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement.

The military wing of Hamas said late Wednesday that it had handed over the final remains of the deceased hostages it has found amid the vast destruction of Gaza. Of the 28 bodies held there before the ceasefire came into effect, nine have been returned to Israel. No more are likely to be found until specialized recovery equipment enters Gaza, the group said.

The dispute over hostage returns has raged all week: Israel says Hamas is holding back bodies and violating the ceasefire agreement, but Hamas, and two senior U.S. advisers, say the low number of bodies returned reflects the reality of the complex situation on the ground — one that was expected when the deal was signed.

The argument underscores the fragility of the ceasefire as Israel threatens to return to fighting just days after President Donald Trump toured the Middle East celebrating the idea that his U.S.-backed peace plan had created a new “dawn” in a region scarred by violence.

Hamas handed over two more coffins to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday evening, bringing the total number of remains transferred to Israel to 10. One of the bodies handed over on Tuesday, Israel said, was found not to have been one of the hostages after DNA testing. The latest two handed over were identified as Inbar Hayman, who the IDF said was abducted at the Nova music festival, and Sgt. Maj. Muhammad al-Atrash, who it said was killed in combat on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body taken captive.

In a statement shortly after the last release, Hamas said it had “fulfilled its commitment to the agreement by handing over all living Israeli prisoners in its custody, as well as the corpses it could access.” To find and access the remains of the other 19 hostages would require specialized equipment for their extraction, it said, to which they are “exerting great effort.”

Shortly after, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered Israel Defense Forces to draw up a plan to defeat Hamas “should the group refuse to implement President Trump’s plan and fighting need to be resumed.”

In Israel, the days since the surviving hostages came home have been marbled with relief, but also with anguish. On social media, short videos have shown the emotional reunions with loved ones; in Jerusalem, large posters thank Trump for his role in making them happen.

But for families of the slain hostages, the week has been a time, at long last, for funerals. On Wednesday night at Mount Herzl military cemetery, the body of Capt. Daniel Peretz was laid to rest. In the crowd for the solemn ceremony was Matan Angrest, who had served under Peretz’s command, before being taken captive too, until his release Monday.

“Parents should not be burying a child, and the grandparents should not be burying a grandchild,” Peretz’s grandmother told mourners from the podium. To the slain soldier, she said, “You are in our hearts forever.”

In a briefing with reporters on Wednesday night, the two senior U.S. advisers said Washington has been pushing Israel for any intelligence it has on where in Gaza the bodies could be located and passing that information to Hamas through mediators.

“You have to understand the complexity of the conditions on the ground. … The entire Gaza Strip has been pulverized,” one said. “Under all that debris, there’s a lot of bodies.” Turkish search and rescue teams would be entering Gaza, the advisers said, to help locate the bodies.

Speaking about accusations of ceasefire violations, one adviser said they had heard claims “Hamas had violated” the plan by not immediately returning all of the bodies within the 72-hour deadline, which expired on Monday afternoon. “The understanding we had with them was that we would get all of those alive. They did honor that,” they continued. That deadline for all of the remains “would have been almost impossible,” one adviser said, “even if they knew where the bodies are.”

Under the terms of the agreement signed in Sharm el-Sheikh last week, while Hamas was required to turn over all 48 living and deceased hostages — within 72 hours of a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces inside Gaza — a clause was written in that an information sharing mechanism would be established to exchange intelligence on the remains that could not be found within that time frame.

All 20 living hostages were released from captivity by Hamas and its allied factions in Gaza on Monday as almost 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners were freed from Israeli jails in return — most of them Gazans who had been taken by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, 2023 and held without charge.

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• Karen DeYoung contributed.