Families of dead hostages urge US to ‘leave no stone unturned’ to have them returned | Israel
Families of missing Israeli hostages have written to US special envoy Steve Witkoff to urge Hamas to “use every means and leave no stone unturned” to force Hamas to bring their relatives back from Gaza.
The return of 28 dead hostages was part of the agreement that started the ceasefire, but only four hostages have been handed over so far.
Mediators understand that Hamas is having trouble locating all the dead, but the Israeli government believes the group is making inadequate efforts.
Families of the dead demanded solidarity regarding the fate of their loved ones. Yael Adar, the mother of 38-year-old Tamir Adar, whose body was taken from the Nir Oz kibbutz during Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, described the lack of handover as a betrayal of the Benjamin Netanyahu government. “The fight does not end until the last prisoner returns,” he said.
Adar’s aunt Adriyana told the Guardian: “We need to make this happen. I think the United States and other countries that are involved need to make this happen. It’s not over until it’s done.”
In the families’ letter to Witkoff, they wrote: “We ask you to use every means and leave no stone unturned in demanding that Hamas fulfill its end of the agreement and bring all remaining hostages home.
“Your assurance that you will leave no one behind resonates in our hearts and gives us the strength to continue. Your words to dig with your own fingers to find our loved ones left behind are forever etched in our memories and give us strength in our darkest moments.”
The Israeli government said Tuesday it would keep the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza closed and reduce humanitarian aid to the strip in an effort to appease the families. The ceasefire agreement envisaged increasing aid.
On Monday, Hamas released the last 20 living hostages taken on October 7, 2023, while Israel handed over nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and detainees under Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.
The agreement also requires Hamas to return the bodies of 28 Israelis in exchange for 360 Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza. Hamas told mediators it lost nine people in the rubble caused by the latest bombing, but the Israeli government was outraged after receiving only four bodies instead of the expected 20, calling it a violation of the agreement.
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 danger.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it would take time to hand over the remains of hostages in Gaza, calling it a “huge challenge” due to the difficulty of finding bodies under the rubble.
“This is a much bigger challenge than the release of people who are alive. It’s a huge challenge,” said ICRC spokesman Christian Cardon.
This could take days or weeks, and there’s a chance the remains may never be found, Cardon said.
The four bodies found were sent to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification. Hamas has sent back unrelated corpses instead of hostages in the past.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had officially identified two of those handed over as Guy Illouz, 26, and Bipin Joshi, 23.
Illouz, who had a career in the music industry, was shot at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and was taken to a hospital in Gaza, where he died from his injuries.
Joshi, a Nepali agriculture student who went to Israel to study, was kidnapped from the Alumim kibbutz where he was studying local agricultural methods.
Video footage released by the Israeli military shortly after the Hamas attacks in 2023 shows Joshi being dragged to the Shifa hospital in Gaza, the last known time he was seen alive.
Hamas says the other two bodies found and identified by Israeli authorities are those of 53-year-old Yossi Sharabi and 22-year-old Daniel Perez.
