The terrorist group Hamas on Saturday handed over to Israel the bodies of two more possible hostages that were being held in the Gaza Strip, Israel's military said.
Israel Defense Forces said in a social media post late Saturday night local time that "according to information provided by the Red Cross, two coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their custody" and were on their way to IDF and Israel Security Agency forces in Gaza.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed that the remains of the two deceased hostages were being transported to Israel, where they would be "received in a military ceremony" and then transferred to the National Center of Forensic Medicine for identification.
Since the Gaza peace plan took effect early this week, Hamas has handed over 20 living hostages and the remains of at least eight confirmed hostages.
If the two bodies handed over on Saturday are confirmed as hostages, it would mean the remains of at least 16 Hamas-held hostages are still unaccounted for.
President Trump joined world leaders in Egypt Monday to sign the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that saw Hamas agree to release all living and deceased hostages in exchange for Israel releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The released Palestinians include 250 people who are serving life sentences, and about 1,700 others who had been detained and held without charges since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
Hamas handed over the bodies of four confirmed hostages on Monday, another three on Tuesday, and two on Wednesday. That same day, it said that it had released all the Israeli hostage remains in Gaza that it had been able to recover. But on Friday, it returned another confirmed hostage.
And according to the Associated Press, as part of the ceasefire deal, Israel has so far returned to Gaza the bodies of 135 Palestinians.
A senior U.S. adviser told reporters on a call Wednesday that "nobody is getting left behind," noting they believe there are still many bodies buried under the mountains of rubble across Gaza. Senior U.S. advisers said the level of destruction also makes it difficult to move around in the Palestinian territory.
President Trump also said in Egypt on Monday that not all of the bodies of the deceased hostages had been found, adding that unidentified parties were still "working out" how to locate an unspecified number of remains.
Tensions emerged over the peace deal Saturday, with Netanyahu's office announcing that the critical southern Gaza border crossing of Rafah, which connects with Egypt, "would not be opened until further notice," saying that its opening would be dependent "on how Hamas fulfills its part in returning the abductees and implementing the agreed-upon outline."
Hamas responded by calling the move "a blatant violation of the terms of the ceasefire agreement."
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department issued a statement late Saturday saying that the U.S. had learned of a "planned attack" by Hamas "against Palestinian civilians."
The U.S. said it "had informed the guarantor nations of the Gaza peace agreement of credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza."
This comes after CBS News obtained a video Wednesday which showed armed Hamas fighters standing over Palestinians they accused of being gang members collaborating with Israel. Moments later, they execute them.
The disturbing images are part of a long pattern of punishment meted out to suspected collaborators, Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin told CBS News.
Olivia Rinaldi and Melissa Gaffney contributed to this report.
