Trump hints at 'action' if Hamas doesn't return hostage bodies

The bodies of 13 deceased hostages are believed to still be in Gaza.

ByKevin Shalvey, Jon Haworth, Emily Shapiro, Nadine El-Bawab, and David Brennan
Last Updated: October 24, 2025, 10:52 AM EDT

U.S. officials -- including Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner -- traveled to Israel this week for high-level meetings, discussing the next steps in the delicate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Israel has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire deal by withholding the bodies of the remaining 13 deceased hostages thought to have died during or after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has said the return of the remaining bodies "may take some time" due to the destruction.

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
Oct 16, 2025, 6:35 PM EDT

Returning remaining hostage bodies 'may take some time': Hamas

Returning the bodies of the remaining hostages that are held in Gaza "may take some time," Hamas said Thursday.

The bodies are "buried in tunnels" that were destroyed by Israeli military action, Hamas said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump discussed the "issue of the return" of the dead hostages during a phone call Thursday, Israeli hostage coordinator Brig. Gen. Gal Hirsch said in a statement to hostage families.

"The contact between us and the Americans and the mediators continues continuously, the pressure on Hamas continues and will intensify," Hirsch said.

Oct 16, 2025, 6:19 PM EDT

Trump says US troops would not go into Gaza after issuing threat to 'kill' Hamas members

President Donald Trump clarified that U.S. troops would not be going into Gaza after he posted on social media earlier Thursday that Hamas should stop killing people in Gaza or else "we will have no choice but to go in and kill them."

"I didn’t say who would go in but somebody will go in. It's not going to be us. We won't have to," Trump told reporters. "There are people very close, very nearby, that will go in, they'll do the trick very easily. But under our auspices."

-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa

Oct 16, 2025, 4:40 PM EDT

State Department working to help get aid into Gaza

The State Department said it deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team last week "to help surge and coordinate aid into Gaza.”

Palestinians walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, October 14, 2025.
Ebrahim Hajjaj/Reuters

The team moved into position ahead of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. A majority of the team is based in Jerusalem while other members of the team are based in different parts of the Middle East, a Trump administration official told ABC News.

-ABC News’ Mariam Khan

Oct 16, 2025, 3:14 PM EDT

30 bodies returned to Gaza by Israeli authorities

Thirty bodies were returned to Gaza on Thursday, transferred from Israeli authorities to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Gaza Ministry of Health.

In total, 120 bodies have been transferred from Israeli authorities back to Gaza through the Red Cross since the first phase of the ceasefire deal went into effect.

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