Trucks, excavators, and bulldozers rolled into Gaza on Saturday as an Egyptian team began operations to recover the bodies of 13 missing Israeli hostages and an estimated 10,000 Palestinians believed to be trapped under rubble.The effort comes after Israel reportedly allowed such recovery work for the first time. “It is a technical team. They are going in only to locate the slain hostages,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, as cited by the Times of Israel.Top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya confirmed that teams would access new areas in Gaza to search for the hostages’ remains, adding that Hamas would hand over “all administrative control of the Gaza Strip to the temporary committee, including security.”US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged Hamas to “quickly” return the bodies of the deceased hostages to ensure what he called “everlasting” peace in the Middle East. “Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, saying he would monitor Hamas’s actions over the next 48 hours.Both Israel and Hamas have reportedly provided the Egyptian team with data on the likely locations of the bodies, according to Channel 12. Israeli defence officials also told US Vice President JD Vance that Hamas could hand over the remains of at least 10 of the 13 hostages even before international recovery teams enter Gaza.Of the 28 confirmed deceased hostages, 13 are still in Gaza. On October 7, 2023, 251 people including several Americans were abducted in the cross-border attack by Hamas, which triggered Israel’s large-scale military offensive that has since killed thousands.Earlier, the bodies of two hostages, Aryeh Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar, were recovered from Gaza.While the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has largely held, Trump, speaking en route to the ASEAN summit in Malaysia, warned Hamas of “serious consequences” if the truce collapses. Meanwhile, Gaza’s health ministry said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed dozens despite the ongoing ceasefire.
