Israel has received the bodies of four hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, as pressure grows on the group to locate the remaining victims as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
After all 20 remaining living Israelis kidnapped two years ago were returned on Monday, attention has turned to the victims who have died in captivity.
Of the 28 dead hostages, only eight have so far been returned. The four returned late on Tuesday, via the Red Cross, are yet to be formally identified.
The four handed over by Hamas on Monday are Guy Illouz, Bipin Joshi, Yossi Sharabi, and Daniel Peretz.
Sky’s Middle East correspondent Adam Parsons said it’s “clear Hamas doesn’t know where all these bodies are”, with fears they could be under rubble in parts of Gaza devastated by Israel’s two-year bombardment.
Some of the fighters who had been guarding them have been killed.
The return of all the hostages, living and dead, is a key pillar of the deal agreed to by Israel and Hamas, heralded by US President Donald Trump as having brought “peace in the Middle East”.
Israel – which has freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners – said it would keep the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt closed on Wednesday, and limit aid entering Gaza, due to Hamas’s failure to return all the dead.
Hostage families have urged their government to “finish the job” and get the remaining bodies home.
Two far-right ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Israel should limit aid and use “military pressure” to ensure their return.
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Trump: Hamas must disarm, or we will disarm them
Hamas is also facing questions over whether it’s willing to comply with a longer-term requirement of the Gaza peace plan: that the group must disarm.
Photos and videos have emerged on social media in the past few days of Hamas fighters appearing to kill other Palestinians, whom they accused of collaborating with Israel.
Mr Trump told reporters that if the group didn’t disarm, “we will disarm them”.
“It will happen quickly and perhaps violently,” he said in a meeting with Argentina’s Javier Milei at the White House.
Mr Trump said he had received assurances from Hamas “through my people” that the group would disarm.
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Starmer: Hamas must honour ceasefire
But the president also appeared to suggest Hamas had “misrepresented” the number of hostages it will be able to return during ceasefire negotiations.
“We were told they had 26, 24 [bodies] of dead hostages, if we can use those terms,” he added. “And it seems they don’t have that number because we’re talking about a much lesser number.
“I want them back. That’s what they said. I want them back.”
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Hamas had agreed to a Monday deadline to return all the hostages.
Britain’s Sir Keir Starmer has also called on Hamas to “honour the terms of the ceasefire” and release the remaining hostages, as he paid tribute to one of those returned to Israel on Monday.
The loss of Yossi Sharabi, who has British family, “will be felt deeply by his family after Hamas so cruelly drew out their horror and denied them the right to grieve”, the prime minister said.
