Cairo: EgyPulse – News Desk
Hamas announced that it has fulfilled its commitment to the ceasefire agreement by handing over all the living Israeli prisoners in the movement’s custody, as well as all the corpses it could access. As for the remaining corpses, it requires extensive efforts and special equipment for their retrieval and extraction, the movement added. “We are exerting great efforts in order to close this file,” it continued.
In a spereate statement on its official webiste, Hamas said that the the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of the movement) decided to hand over the bodies of two Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip at 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
A ceasefire in Gaza strip between Hamas and Israel took effect on Friday and all 20 living captives and some of the deceased, who had been held in Gaza since October 2023, were released this week as Hamas and Israel approved the initial phase of the deal.
In comments on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said if Hamas did not disarm and hand down its weapons, the US will disarm it. “They know that we are not playing games,” he added.
Hamas disarmament is part of Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which includes a ceasefire, a prisoner swap agreement, and a surge in humanitarian aid deliveries in the first phase. However, later phases of the agreement, which include contentious issues like Hamas disarmament and post-war Gaza governance are set to be discussed later.
