Trump hints at 'action' if Hamas doesn't return hostage bodies
The bodies of 13 deceased hostages are believed to still be in Gaza.
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
- Egyptian resources deployed in Gaza to help locate, recover Israeli hostage remains
- Netanyahu says Israel, not US, will decide security policy
- Trump hints at 'action' if Hamas doesn't return hostage bodies 'quickly’
- Rubio says West Bank annexation would 'threaten this whole process'
- Aid allowed into Gaza is still falling short of what is needed, WHO head says
Netanyahu says Israel 'will know how to act' if remaining bodies aren't returned
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel could act if bodies of the hostages held by Hamas are not returned to Israel.
"I know exactly how many hostage bodies Hamas is holding and, if we don't receive them, Israel will know how to act accordingly," Netanyahu said on Thursday night.
"As the Prime Minister has emphasized, the 20-point plan enables all of Israel’s war objectives to be met once it is implemented. Namely, the dismantlement of Hamas capabilities, the demilitarization of Gaza and the deradicalization of radical Palestinians," said Ophir Falk, foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu.
"If it’s not implemented Israel will have to carry out more -- from a much better place than we were last week. Now that all the live hostages have been freed. Military operations will be much easier to carry out if needed,” said Falk.
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.
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
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.”
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