"Families of Hostages Endure Weeks of Heartache as Hamas Struggles to Locate Final 19 Bodies Amid Rubble"

FAMILIES of 19 Israeli hostages are enduring fresh torment as Hamas claims it may take weeks – and even special equipment – to recover the final remaining bodies in Gaza.

Two more bodies – identified as Inbar Haiman, 27, and Muhammad el-Atrash, 39 – were returned by the terrorists late Wednesday night, collected by the Red Cross in Gaza City and handed to Israeli troops.

Inbar Haiman, 27, murdered by Hamas gunmen at the Nova music festival during the October 7 bloodbathCredit: bringthemhome Sgt. Maj. Muhammad el-Atrash, 39, a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, was also killed by the terrorist groupCredit: IDF

Once back on Israeli soil, the caskets were draped with flags and honoured in a solemn military ceremony before being taken for forensic examination in Tel Aviv.

Haiman, a visual communications student from Haifa, was murdered by Hamas gunmen at the Nova music festival during the October 7 attacks.

El-Atrash, a dad of 13 and IDF tracker, was killed that same day in battle near Nahal Oz.

Their remains were among the 28 bodies Hamas is obliged to return under the first phase of Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan.

But with 19 bodies still missing, Hamas now insists many lie beneath mountains of rubble and twisted tunnels left by the war – and retrieving them could require specialised equipment it says Israel is blocking from entering Gaza.

The terror group said in a statement: “The remaining bodies require significant efforts and specialised equipment to search for and retrieve, and we are making a great effort to close this file.”

A spokesman for Hamas’s media office, Salama Marouf, went further on Friday, blaming Israel’s restrictions for the delay.

He said: “Preventing the entry of heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove 55 million tons of rubble… will undoubtedly affect the resistance’s ability to extract from under the rubble the dead prisoners (hostages).”

Israel flatly rejects the accusation – and says Hamas is stalling.

Senior officials told Axios that intelligence shows the terrorist group has access to more bodies than it admits, accusing Hamas of “slow-walking” the process.

One Israeli official said: “We don’t see Hamas making maximum effort regarding the bodies.

“We know they can do more and we don’t think anybody should give them any discounts.”

The dispute over the missing bodies has already prompted Israel to close the Rafah crossing and slash aid deliveries into Gaza, branding Hamas’s sluggish pace a violation of the ceasefire terms.

Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that if Hamas doesn’t deliver, Israel is prepared to act.

“If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the United States, will resume fighting and act to achieve a total defeat of Hamas,” Katz said.

Hamas terrorists bearing weapons in Gaza as the terror group faces calls to down arms immediatelyCredit: AFP Hamas claims it needs weeks and specialised equipment to recover 19 remaining bodies in GazaCredit: Reuters

The standoff threatens to derail Trump’s hard-fought ceasefire deal, which required all 48 remaining hostages – dead or alive – to be returned by Monday.

While all 20 living captives were freed on schedule, only nine bodies have so far been verified.

One set of remains handed over by Hamas this week turned out to be Palestinian, not Israeli.

Trump, who declared the truce a breakthrough that brought “peace in the Middle East,” issued his own warning.

“Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word,” he told CNN, making clear Hamas faces the prospect of renewed war if it doesn’t fulfil its side of the deal.

In the Oval Office, the president described the grim work now underway in Gaza.

He said: “It’s a gruesome process… They’re digging and they’re finding a lot of bodies. Then they have to separate the bodies.

“Some of those bodies have been in there a long time, and some of them are under rubble. They have to remove rubble. Some are in tunnels… that are way down under the earth.”

An Israeli flag wraps the body of Guy Illouz, who was taken hostage alive from the Nova festival during the deadly October 7 attackCredit: Reuters Guy was taken from the Nova music festival during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023Credit: AP Red Cross vehicles transport the bodies of deceased hostages who had been held in Gaza for more than two yearsCredit: Reuters

Mediators warn the search could drag on for weeks, slowed by what one Trump adviser described as destruction far worse than the wreckage of 9/11 – and complicated by unexploded ordnance and miles of collapsed tunnels.

“It would have been almost impossible for Hamas — even if they knew where all the 28 bodies were — to mobilize and get them all,” the adviser said.

and feeding Hamas Israeli intelligence to help locate the bodies.

Plans are being drawn up to offer cash rewards to Gazans who provide information, and Turkish disaster experts may join the search.

A senior Trump adviser warned: “We’re not going to leave here until everybody comes home… Nobody is getting left behind.”

The stakes could not be higher.

Until the truce began days ago, a two-year war had killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry – a figure that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel says 1,200 people were murdered and 251 taken hostage in Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Now, the final stage of Trump’s ceasefire plan hinges on what lies buried beneath Gaza’s ruins.

If Hamas delivers, the deal could hold. If not, the guns may roar again.

President Donald Trump shows the signed peace treaty at the Gaza summit chaired by Egypt’s President Al-SisiCredit: Avalon.red