Bringing Excavators-Buldosers, Egypt Helps Hamas Find Bodies Will Be Handed Over To Israel

Illustration. The D9 armored pulsar was used by the Israeli military when annexing the Gaza Strip of the Palestinian territory in 2023. (doc IDF)

JAKARTA - Egypt is stepping in to assist in the search and evacuation of bodies in the Gaza Strip of the Palestinian territory which will be handed over by Hamas to Israel.

Under the US-brokered Hamas-Israel ceasefire agreement on October 10, Hamas is expected to return all the bodies of Israeli hostages as soon as possible.

In the agreement, Israel also agreed to return the bodies of 15 Palestinians to each hostage's body.

So far, Israel has repatriated 195 bodies of Palestinian hostages. Hamas has since also repatriated 18 hostages, but in the last five days, no one has been released.

On Sunday 26 October, Hamas expanded its search for hostages' bodies in new areas of the Gaza Strip, a day after Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help evacuate the bodies.

Egypt deployed heavy equipment, including excavators and bulldozers, into Gaza on Saturday, October 25, to assist in the search for the bodies of Israeli hostages.

Two Egyptian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media said the entry of teams from Egypt was part of an international mediator's attempt to strengthen the ceasefire agreement.

The Hamas leader in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, said on Sunday morning that the Palestinian independence struggle group was starting to search for the bodies of 13 hostages still in Gaza.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump warned that the US was "very strictly watching" to ensure Hamas returned more bodies in the next 48 hours.

"Some bodies are difficult to reach, but others can be returned now and, for some reason, no," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Al-Hayya, who is also Hamas' main negotiator, told an Egyptian media last week that attempts to evacuate the bodies faced challenges due to the massive damage that buried them deep underground.