Hamas lying about failing to find dead hostages’ bodies: Report

Hamas promised to return the bodies of 28 deceased Israeli hostages, but has delivered only nine.

By World Israel News Staff

A senior Israeli official warned that Hamas is lying about its alleged inability to locate the majority of the bodies of deceased hostages, implying the terror group is violating the ceasefire and withholding the remains to gain leverage over Israel.

Hamas knows the location of the bodies of most of the remaining hostages in the Strip, the official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

The official dismissed Hamas’ claim that, after returning the bodies of nine hostages in recent days, it can no longer provide any additional remains.

On Monday, Hamas freed 20 living Israeli hostages — who had been held for two years in the Gaza Strip — and promised to return the bodies of 28 others who were either murdered on October 7th or killed in captivity.

While American and Israeli negotiators were aware that Hamas might struggle to locate every body, estimates suggested that between seven and fifteen would remain unaccounted for.

However, Hamas has fallen far short of that expectation. Despite being obligated to release all the bodies under the terms of the Trump-brokered ceasefire agreement, the terror group has so far returned only 10.

Nine of those bodies were identified as belonging to Israeli hostages. The tenth was found to be an Arab from the Palestinian Authority, whom Hamas falsely claimed was an Israeli soldier.

The Israeli government has warned that should Hamas choose not to uphold its end of the deal, the IDF will resume its campaign against the terror group in Gaza.

The deceased Israeli hostages returned by Hamas have been named as Bipin Joshi, Uriel Baruch, Daniel Peretz, Tamir Nimrodi, Muhammad al-Atrash, Yossi Sharabi, Guy Ilouz, Inbar Haiman, and Eitan Levy.

Peretz, Nimrodi, and al-Atrash were IDF soldiers. Peretz and al-Atrash fell in battle against the terror group. Nimrodi is believed to have been kidnapped alive from his base, and perished in captivity in unclear circumstances.

Baruch, Ilouz, and Haiman were abducted from the Nova Music Festival and on nearby roads while fleeing the massacre. Baruch is believed to have been murdered and his body kidnapped, while Ilouz and Haiman were taken alive.

Hebrew-language media reports indicate that Ilouz and Haiman were badly wounded by terrorists and later died in captivity, with Hamas denying them medical treatment.

Joshi, a Nepali national, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Alumim, where he had arrived a month earlier to study agriculture. He was later murdered by his captors.

Levy, a taxi driver, was murdered by Hamas in his vehicle while driving in southern Israel. His body was dragged through the streets of Gaza, as cheering crowds beat his corpse.

Sharabi was kidnapped from his home alive in Kibbutz Be’eri and was later killed in Hamas captivity.