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Hamas hands over hostage bodies after Israel threatens aid cut

Published: 15 Oct. 2025, 10:08

A convoy transporting the bodies of deceased hostages, kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, arrives at Abu Kabir forensic centre, as part of a prisoner-hostage swap and a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel on Oct. 15. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Hamas handed over more bodies of deceased hostages to Israel on Tuesday, one sign of progress after a number of apparent setbacks in the day since U.S. President Donald Trump touted his plan to end the Israel-Hamas war.

The bodies were returned after Israel announced it would cut in half the number of humanitarian aid trucks allowed into Gaza in a move to punish Hamas for what Israel called the militant group's violation of its agreement to transfer remains under the ceasefire deal reached last week.

Meanwhile, re-emergent Hamas fighters demonstrated they were reasserting control in Gaza by deploying hundreds of security forces in the streets and executing several people they accused of collaborating with Israel.

The outlook for Trump's peace plan darkened further when the president threatened Hamas with military strikes unless the militant group disarmed.

"If they don't disarm, we will disarm them. And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently," Trump said at the White House, one day after he spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained the war cannot end until Hamas surrenders its weapons and cedes control of Gaza, a demand the fighters have rejected.

On Monday, Trump proclaimed the "historic dawn of a new Middle East" to Israel's parliament, as Israel and Hamas were exchanging the last 20 living Israeli hostages in Gaza for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners.

But the return of 28 dead hostages has remained one of the final details to be worked out in the deal to end more than two years of hostilities that began with Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has now handed over eight coffins of dead hostages, leaving at least 19 presumed dead and one unaccounted for still in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it received four coffins from the Red Cross at a meeting point in the northern Gaza Strip. Those coffins, escorted by Israeli forces, crossed the border into Israel shortly before midnight and were being taken for forensic identification, the Israeli military said.

Hamas also confirmed the transfer was under way.

“At this moment, the men are continuing to oversee the implementation of what was agreed upon regarding the handover of bodies as part of the agreement to end the war in Gaza,” Hamas spokesperson in Gaza Hazem Qassem on Facebook.

A drone photo of people gathering after Simchat Torah, which marks the final reading of the Torah, on the day the bodies of deceased hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas are brought to Israel, at Hostages Square, in Tel Aviv, Israel on Oct. 14. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

It was not immediately clear if the handing over of bodies was sufficient for Israel to restore a full complement of aid deliveries.

Israeli officials said they had decided to restrict aid, allowing only half the agreed number of aid trucks into Gaza starting Wednesday, and to delay plans to open the southern border crossing to Egypt because Hamas had violated the ceasefire deal by failing to turn over bodies of hostages. Israel's two-year assault has left much of the enclave in ruins and Gaza City and surrounding areas are suffering from a famine that has afflicted more than half a million Palestinians, creating great need for an expected 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily during the ceasefire.

Plans have yet to be implemented to open the crossing to Egypt to let some Palestinians in Gaza out, initially to evacuate the wounded for medical treatment.

AP