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The families of missing dead Israeli hostages have written to the US special envoy Steve Witkoff to urge him to “pull out every stop and leave no stone unturned” in forcing Hamas to bring their relatives home from Gaza.
The return of 28 dead hostages was part of the agreement that ushered in a ceasefire, but only four have so far been handed over.
Mediators understand that Hamas is having trouble locating all of the dead but the Israeli government believes the group is making insufficient effort.
The families of the dead have demanded solidarity over the fate of their loved ones. Yael Adar, the mother of Tamir Adar, 38, whose body was taken from the Nir Oz kibbutz during the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, describied the lack of a handover as betrayal by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. “The struggle is not over until the last captive returns,” she said.
Adar’s aunt, Adriyana, told the Guardian: “We need to make it happen. I think the United States and the other countries that are involved in this, they need to make it happen. It’s not finished until it’s finished.”
In the families’ letter to Witkoff, they wrote: “We ask you to pull out every stop and leave no stone unturned in demanding that Hamas fulfil their end of the agreement and bring all the remaining hostages home.
“Your assurance that you will not leave anyone behind echoes in our hearts and gives us strength to continue. Your words – that you would dig with your own fingers to find our loved ones left behind – are forever etched in our memory and sustain us through the darkest moments.”
In a bid to placate the families, the Israeli government said on Tuesday it would keep the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza closed and reduce humanitarian aid to the strip. The ceasefire deal had foreseen an increase in aid.
On Monday, Hamas released the final 20 living hostages taken on 7 October 2023, while Israel handed over nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.
The agreement further requires Hamas to return 28 Israeli bodies in exchange for 360 Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza. Hamas told mediators it had lost nine of them under the rubble caused by recent bombing but the Israeli government was angered after receiving only four bodies instead of the expected 20, calling it a breach of the deal.
An Arab diplomat from a mediating country told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that mediators were working on the issue and did not believe the Gaza agreement was in jeopardy.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it will take time to hand over the remains of the hostages in Gaza, calling it a “massive challenge” owing to the difficulties of finding bodies in the rubble.
“That’s an even bigger challenge than having the people alive being released. That’s a massive challenge,” said the ICRC’s spokesperson Christian Cardon.
Cardon said it could take days or weeks and that there was a possibility the remains would never be found.
The four recovered bodies were sent to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification. Hamas has in the past sent back unrelated bodies instead of hostages.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had formally identified two of those handed over as Guy Illouz, 26, and Bipin Joshi, 23.
Illouz, who was building a career in the music industry, was shot at Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 and was taken to a hospital in Gaza, where he died of his wounds.
Joshi, a Nepalese agriculture student who was in Israel to study, was kidnapped from the Alumim kibbutz, where he was studying local farming methods.
Video footage released by the Israeli military soon after the 2023 Hamas attacks appeared to show Joshi being dragged into Gaza’s Shifa hospital, his last known sighting alive.
The two other bodies in the possession of the Israeli authorities and undergoing identification are said by Hamas to be those of Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Daniel Perez, 22.
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