The United States is working to ensure all of the hostages’ bodies are recovered from Gaza, according to White House officials.
While the remaining 20 living hostages have already been released by the terrorist group Hamas, concerns have been raised about the recovery of hostages who died in captivity. Israel said that the terrorist group was not returning the bodies fast enough, and that it sent a random body claiming it was one of the hostages.
White House officials were not convinced that Hamas had violated the agreement, saying that the release of all remaining living hostages was the deal’s priority.
“I think the understanding we had with them was we get all the live hostages out, which they did honor that. And right now, we have a mechanism in place where we’re working closely with mediators and with them to do our best to get as many bodies out as possible. And we continue to give them the intelligence that the Israelis have, and we'll keep working in good faith until we’re able to exhaust that mechanism,” one White House official told reporters during a briefing on Oct. 15.
Officials said that “nobody’s getting left behind” and they were working to get all of the deceased hostages back to their families, even possibly working with Turkey and other governments who were willing to send in experts to help with body retrieval.
“We’re working,” the official said. ”We’re gathering lots of intelligence. We’re probably going to put together some sort of program where we’re going to ask people if they can help us to locate bodies, and we’re going to pay rewards for that type of good behavior.”
U.S. President Donald Trump separately told members of the press that work was being done to retrieve all of the bodies but said it was a “gruesome process,” requiring that bodies be dug up and separated.
The president elaborated on the extent of the ongoing search, stating that some of the bodies had been dead for a long time and were under rubble, in the tunnels dug by Hamas, or already in graves.
No official deadline was set for when the bodies had to be returned.
Israel said on Oct. 15 that it had received two more bodies from Hamas. They have been sent to a forensic lab in Tel Aviv for DNA testing and identification. Health officials in Gaza have said that Israeli restrictions on sending DNA testing equipment into Gaza have often left authorities to rely on physical features and clothing for identification.
