President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Hamas on Saturday, declaring the terror group has 48 hours to begin returning the bodies of deceased hostages or face consequences from the international coalition that brokered the ceasefire. The ultimatum came as families of the fallen marked 750 days since the last remains were returned to Israel, their patience wearing thin with Hamas’s claims that it cannot locate all the bodies.
“Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action,” Trump wrote on Truth Social during a refueling stop in Doha, where he met with Qatar’s emir and prime minister aboard Air Force One. “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not.”
The statement cuts through Hamas’s carefully constructed narrative. Israeli intelligence assessments indicate that Hamas currently holds the remains of eight hostages and claims it doesn’t know the location of five others. But Israeli officials say the terror group can reach most of the remaining bodies with little effort. The fact that Hamas hasn’t released them reveals this is about timing and leverage, not logistics.
The answer lies in an ancient pattern of enemies attempting to deny the Jewish people even the dignity of burial. When King Saul and his sons fell on Mount Gilboa, the Philistines took their bodies and fastened them to the wall of Beth-shan, leaving them exposed in a final act of humiliation. The people of Yavesh Gilad risked their lives to retrieve those bodies for proper burial, understanding that honoring the dead transcends military victory or defeat.
The Sages teach that denying burial is among the gravest of affronts, a Jewish principle being cynically used by Hamas, allowing the terror group to withholds these bodies as bargaining chips. Hamas deputy leader Mousa Abu Marzouk admitted as much when he told Al Jazeera that “excluding Hamas from Gaza’s security responsibility may lead to chaos and a security vacuum”.
The ceasefire agreement required Hamas to return all hostages, living and dead. So far, Hamas has released 20 living hostages and the bodies of 15 deceased captives. Thirteen bodies remain in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, traveling with Trump, made clear that “all of Gaza will be demilitarized” and dismissed any notion of permanent Hamas control over parts of the territory.
Trump left no doubt about who would bear responsibility if the ceasefire collapses. “Well, if it doesn’t hold, that would be Hamas. Hamas will be not hard to take care of very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their word on something, so I think it’s going to hold, and if it doesn’t, then they’ll have a very big problem.”
Israel initially urged the United States to set this deadline and impose sanctions on Hamas, but Washington resisted, fearing such pressure might collapse the ceasefire. That calculation appears to have changed. For the first time since the ceasefire began, Israel approved entry of a foreign team—Egyptian engineers with heavy equipment—to search for remains at Israeli-designated locations.
Following Trump’s post, Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya pledged to expand the search for deceased hostages, telling Al Jazeera that teams would enter new areas of Gaza to locate remains. He insisted Hamas didn’t want to provide Israel with any excuse to restart the war. But the gap between Hamas’s words and actions remains vast.
The families of the 13 hostages gathered Saturday night for their weekly rally, their slogan unchanged: “Until the last hostage is home.”