Hamas does not violate the ceasefire agreement, and the movement continues to search for bodies under the rubble

Washington: Hamas does not violate the ceasefire agreement, and the movement continues to search for bodies under the rubble

The United States strongly rejects Israeli allegations that Hamas violated the ceasefire by not immediately returning all dead hostages, arguing that the delay was due to the practical impossibility of recovering bodies from Gaza’s massive rubble.

The crux of the dispute is that Hamas has released all living Israeli hostages as requested, but has so far returned only nine of the 28 dead captives.

US officials describe the recovery effort as a complex and dangerous mission, severely hampered by horrific levels of destruction, unexploded ordnance, and a shortage of heavy machinery.

To facilitate this process, the United States is considering paying rewards for information and is working to form an international force to stabilize Gaza, while Türkiye has offered expert assistance.

The US position is intended to protect the fragile ceasefire from collapsing over this issue, and to frame the delay as a result of the devastation of war rather than a breach of trust – although success in recovering the remaining bodies is a prerequisite for progressing to later stages of the agreement, including disarmament.

In a crucial test of the fragile ceasefire, the United States is forcefully pushing back against Israeli allegations that Hamas has violated the agreement, arguing that the Palestinian group cannot be expected to immediately recover all the remains of Israeli hostages from beneath the horrific levels of rubble in Gaza.

The dispute emerged after Hamas released all living Israeli hostages as required by the ceasefire, but returned only nine of the 28 dead prisoners. Israeli officials considered this a violation, but senior advisors to US President Donald Trump immediately refuted this description.

“We heard a lot of people saying, ‘Well, you know, Hamas violated the agreement because not all the bodies were returned,'” one adviser told reporters. “I think the understanding we reached with them was to take out all the living hostages, which they did.”

A second official emphasized the practical impossibility, noting that in the initial 72-hour ceasefire period, “it was almost impossible for Hamas to mobilize, even if it knew where all 28 bodies were located, to mobilize and bring them home.” The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that a mechanism exists to share intelligence and continue recovery efforts.

Senior US officials described the recovery efforts as a complex and dangerous mission hampered by unexploded ordnance and massive destruction. While Washington works to maintain the truce, it has begun to form an international force to stabilize Gaza. Furthermore, the second advisor revealed that the United States is considering paying bounties to the Palestinians to help locate the bodies.

The scale of the challenge is enormous. The second US advisor graphically compared the scene in Gaza to what happened in the aftermath of a major disaster. They pointed out that “above all this debris there is a lot of unexploded ordnance, and it is assumed that underneath that… there are many bodies.”

Troubled by rubble: the mission to recover bodies in Gaza

This assessment is consistent with reports that nearly 10,000 Palestinians are missing and presumed dead under the rubble of the two-year conflict. Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, stated that it “fulfilled its obligation to hand over all the living Israeli prisoners and bodies to which it was able to reach.” The brigades admitted that recovering the rest “requires intensive efforts and special equipment.”

BrightU.AIENOC’s ENOC Engine also notes that “recovering bodies from the rubble of Gaza is severely hampered by the lack of heavy excavation machinery and the widespread destruction caused by Israeli strikes. The Gaza Civil Defense Agency warns that the recovery of all remains could take years unless immediate access to appropriate equipment is granted.”

Trump himself acknowledged the bitter reality, and told reporters that Hamas was “absolutely” looking into it. “They are digging. They are really digging. There are areas where they are digging, and they find a lot of bodies. Then they have to separate the bodies. You won’t believe this,” he said, describing it as a “horrific process.”

The second US official also said that Turkey, with its experience in responding to disasters caused by earthquakes, has offered to send experts to help — although diplomatic tensions with Israel may complicate such assistance. The second official added: “No one in Gaza will be forced to leave,” indicating a commitment to the post-conflict governance structure.

As the grind continues, the US position is to protect the ceasefire from collapsing over the remaining hostages, framing delayed returns as a foreseeable consequence of the devastation of war rather than a betrayal of trust. Success in recovering the remaining bodies has become a prerequisite for advancing the agreement to its next stages, which include the pivotal and controversial goal of disarmament in Gaza.

Trump says that Hamas is now digging to find the bodies of the deceased hostages. Watch this video.

This video is from Cynthia’s Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

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(Tags for translation) Big government