Israel Receives 2 More Coffins, Bringing Total to 10, As Trump Vows No One Will Be ‘Left Behind’

Israel received two coffins containing what Hamas says are murdered hostages from Gaza late Wednesday night, the IDF confirmed, after a Red Cross convoy transferred the remains across the border. The victims were taken to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine for identification, and the IDF urged the public to act with restraint until official confirmation is made and families are notified.

According to Israeli officials, 17 murdered hostages remain in Gaza, assuming the last two were indeed victims. Mediators have warned Hamas that Israel’s patience is “running out,” as an Egyptian-led international task force prepares to help locate the remaining victims amid widespread destruction. Hamas has claimed it is unable to find additional bodies.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Hamas is “digging and finding a lot of bodies” in Gaza, describing a grim recovery process complicated by rubble, tunnels, and the passage of time. “Some of those bodies have been in there a long time, and some of them are under rubble. They have to remove rubble. Some are in tunnels… way down under the earth,” Trump said.

Trump emphasized that while the US expects Hamas to fulfill its ceasefire commitments, it will not tolerate violations. “We want the weapons to be given… They’ve agreed to do it. Now they have to do it. If they don’t do it, we’ll do it,” he said, clarifying that the US military will not directly intervene.

Senior US officials told reporters that the process of retrieving bodies was expected to be slow due to Gaza’s conditions. “We’ve heard a lot of people saying, ‘Hamas violated the deal, because not all the bodies have been returned.’ The understanding we had with them was we get all the live hostages out, which they did honor that,” said one adviser to Trump.

Another top aide noted that recovery efforts could only begin after last week’s ceasefire, as Gaza had been an active war zone. “The amount of debris in Gaza dwarfs what was left after the World Trade Center was bombed on 9/11,” the aide said. “On top of all that debris is a lot of unexploded ordnance, and presumably under that… there are many bodies.”

The same official suggested Washington may fund a program offering rewards to Gazans who help locate the bodies. Turkey has also offered to send rescue experts with experience from earthquake zones, though it remains unclear if Israel will accept assistance given the tense relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Israeli intelligence shared with Washington reportedly indicates that Hamas still has access to more bodies than it admits. “We don’t see Hamas making maximum effort regarding the bodies,” one Israeli official told Axios. A US counterpart added that while Washington expects all the bodies will eventually be returned, “it is going to take time.”

Meanwhile, Hamas claimed in a statement that it has returned all the deceased hostages in its possession, insisting that any others “will need great efforts and special tools to find.” The IDF and Shin Bet said the Red Cross retrieved two coffins on Wednesday and transferred them to Israeli forces.

Israeli officials vowed to continue efforts until all hostages are brought home. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel will utilize every possible means to ensure the return of all hostages’ remains,” said a government spokesman, calling the mistaken transfer of a Gazan body earlier this week “a violation” of Trump’s peace framework.

The remains of Uriel Baruch Hy’d, Staff Sergeant Tamir Nimrodi Hy’d, and Eitan Levi Hy’d were among those identified earlier this week at the Abu Kabir Institute. Families of the fallen urged continued determination, saying that recovering their loved ones “would allow the bodies to be brought to an Israeli grave, and thus they could return to their lives.”

Trump reiterated the US position: “We’re not going to leave here until everybody comes home… Nobody is getting left behind.”