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18-10-2025
JERUSALEM: Israel’s prime minister has told a memorial for victims of the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that he is “determined” to secure the return of the dead hostages still in Gaza, and that the country will continue to fight terrorism with “full force”.
Benjamin Netanyahu made the comments hours after Hamas returned the bodies of two more hostages but said it was not able to access the remaining 19.
There has been fury in Israel that Hamas has not returned all the bodies in line with last week’s Gaza ceasefire deal, though the US has downplayed the suggestion it amounts to a breach.
Hamas said later it remained committed to the ceasefire, including “keenness to hand over all remaining corpses”. In a statement, it accused Netanyahu of impeding its ability to search for hostages’ remains by not allowing heavy machinery and diggers into the Gaza Strip.
The group is continuing to try to recover captives’ bodies. In footage broadcast on media, Hamas gunmen appear to guard bulldozers digging in the dark in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Media understands that Hamas has given mediators coordinates and aerial photographs of bodies’ locations. US President Donald Trump meanwhile has signalled he was willing to see fighting resume if Hamas “continues to kill people”, seemingly referencing reports of violence inside Gaza, where Hamas has been accused of violently targeting internal rivals in recent days. Writing on his Truth Social platform, the US president said “we will have no choice but to go in and kill” if the group did not desist.
Trump has previously ruled out putting American soldiers on the ground in Gaza.
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli government confirmed that two bodies handed over by Hamas to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday night had been identified as Inbar Hayman and Sgt Maj Muhammad al-Atarash.
Their return, which was overseen by masked Hamas gunmen in Gaza City, took the number of dead hostages returned since Monday to nine out of 28.
All 20 living hostages were released on Monday, in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel has responded to the delay in returning all the bodies by threatening to restrict the amount of aid flowing into Gaza.
On Thursday, Netanyahu addressed an official memorial ceremony at the Mount Herzl national cemetery in Jerusalem, two days after the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the 7 October attack. The prime minister said he remained committed to securing the return of all the dead Israeli and foreign hostages, and reiterated his government’s willingness to return to military action if Israel was attacked again.
He said: “Our fight against terrorism will continue with full force. We will not allow evil to raise its head. We will exact the full price from anyone who harms us.”
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage.
At least 67,967 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel said Netanyahu’s government should “immediately halt the implementation” of the ceasefire deal until the 19 bodies were returned.
After Hamas said it was unable to retrieve all the bodies, two senior advisers to US President Donald Trump said preparations to move to the next phase of the ceasefire deal were continuing. (Int’l News Desk)
