One of the bodies that Hamas handed over as part of President Donald Trump’s peace deal belonged not to an Israeli hostage but to a Gazan militant disguised in an Israeli military uniform, according to a Wednesday report.
“The fourth body was of a Gazan wearing IDF uniform—apparently a terrorist who was shot during the war,” Israel’s Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal reported on X, adding that Israeli sources say Hamas handed over the Gazan’s body “by mistake.”
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that one body was not that of an Israeli hostage. “Following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages,” the IDF announced in an X post.
Hamas is required to return the 48 remaining hostages, living and dead, under the first phase of Trump’s peace deal. The terror group has returned all 20 living Israeli hostages but only 7 of 28 dead hostages. Israel, which has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, responded to that failure by shutting down a Gaza border crossing and restricting aid until Hamas follows through on its promise.
The terror group’s hold-up drew an angry response from Trump on Tuesday. The president wrote in a Truth Social post that “the JOB IS NOT DONE. THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED.” In subsequent remarks at the White House, Trump made clear that Hamas “will disarm and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” adding that forced disarmament will “happen quickly, and perhaps violently.”
Hamas “is an organization that should not be trusted to tell the truth or to follow through on agreements,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies executive director Jonathan Schanzer told the Washington Free Beacon. “It’s a terrorist organization. Full stop.”
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