Hamas says committed to Gaza truce and returning hostage remains
Hamas promised to hand over to Israel the remains of one more hostage on Friday night, after insisting it was committed to returning all the dead captives still unaccounted for under Gaza’s ruins.
Turkey, responding to a Hamas call for help in finding the remaining hostage bodies, has dispatched a team of specialists to help retrieve remains buried under the rubble, but the group was still waiting Friday for Israeli permission to enter the territory.
The 81-member team from Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is equipped with specialised search-and-rescue tools, including life-detection devices and trained search dogs.
It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza,” a Turkish official told AFP, noting the team’s mission included locating both Palestinian and hostage remains
A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation was expected to enter by Sunday.
Under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine of 28 known deceased ones — along with another body which Israel has said was not that of a former hostage.
In exchange, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from its jails and halted the military campaign it launched in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
