{"id":87942,"date":"2025-10-18T03:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/87942\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T03:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:29:07","slug":"israel-to-ramp-up-pressure-on-hamas-over-return-of-dead-hostages-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/87942\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel to ramp up pressure on Hamas over return of dead hostages \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel<\/a> has said it will increase pressure on Hamas<\/a> to return the remaining 19 dead hostages in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the militant group insisted that the nine bodies it has returned so far (out of a total of 28) are the only ones it can locate, a senior Israeli official said, \u201cthere is a double-digit number of hostages that it can return\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hamas has reiterated that the return of the bodies may take time, as some were buried in tunnels destroyed by Israel and others remain under the rubble of buildings, adding that the group remains committed to the ceasefire<\/a>. <\/p>\n

An Al Jazeera video released early on Friday purported to show Hamas operatives searching for the body of deceased hostage Amiram Cooper in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.<\/p>\n

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar accused Hamas of deliberately holding the bodies. \u201cWe know they can deliver and they don\u2019t want to deliver, because they want to use it as a bargaining chip, just as they used the hostages throughout the war,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

But despite his comments, Israel has decided not to derail the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

All 20 living hostages were released on Monday, in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.<\/p>\n

Egypt has reportedly delivered a stern message to Hamas that it must meet its obligations under the ceasefire deal. But it is also urging Israel not to take punitive measures against Hamas, such as limiting humanitarian aid entering the enclave. <\/p>\n

US envoy Steve Witkoff<\/a>, a key architect of the ceasefire deal, said: \u201cWe will pursue the return of the bodies of the deceased until they all come home. And I\u2019m confident they will all come home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas issued a statement calling on the regional mediators \u201cto complete their role in monitoring the implementation of the remaining clauses of the ceasefire agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n

The militant group demanded that mediators and states ensure delivery of aid \u201cin the required quantities\u201d, address the needs of Gaza\u2019s residents, \u201copen the Rafah crossing with Egypt in both directions to civilians\u201d and \u201caccelerate the reconstruction process\u201d \u2013 citing priority work on homes, infrastructure, hospitals, schools and public institutions.<\/p>\n

The United Nations said aid convoys were struggling to reach famine-hit areas of north Gaza due to war-damaged roads and the continued closure of key routes into the north despite the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\"AA boy hangs a Palestinian flag in Khan Younis. Photograph: Getty Images <\/p>\n

About 560 metric tons of food have entered the Gaza Strip each day on average since the ceasefire was declared, but this is still well below what is needed, according to the UN World Food Programme.<\/p>\n

Global medical charity M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res said many relief agencies had not fully returned to the north, where hospitals are barely functioning, leaving many Gaza civilians unable to access regular care.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation has warned that infectious diseases are \u201cspiralling out of control\u201d, with only 13 of the territory\u2019s 36 hospitals even partially functioning. \u201cWhether meningitis … diarrhoea, respiratory illnesses, we\u2019re talking about a mammoth amount of work,\u201d warned Hanan Balkhy, regional director for the UN health body.<\/p>\n

Israel controls 53 per cent of Gaza territory. Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has instructed the army to indicate its \u201cYellow Line\u201d demarcation with special markings on the ground to clearly highlight where the security separation line runs, according to the ceasefire agreement. The minister\u2019s office stated that the line is also intended to warn Hamas militants and Gaza residents that any violation or attempt to cross the line will be met with fire.<\/p>\n

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and abducted another 251 during the October 7th, 2023, attacks on Israel that triggered the war, according to Israeli tallies. Israel\u2019s military response killed nearly 68,000 people in Gaza, according to local authorities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel has said it will increase pressure on Hamas to return the remaining 19 dead hostages in Gaza.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,3409,4502,42,3410,3411,43,40,38,41,39,31614],"class_list":["post-87942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-gaza-strip","tag-hamas","tag-headlines","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-conflict","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}