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.
Omri Miran, one of the final 20 living hostages released from Gaza on Monday, was seen playing with one of his young daughters after more than two years apart.
Miran’s older daughter, Roni, is now 4 years old, while his younger daughter, Alma, is 2.
Four coffins containing the remains of deceased hostages are now in the custody of the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Security Agency forces and are on their way to Israel, the IDF said.
“Before crossing into Israeli territory, a military protocol will be held in the Gaza Strip in their memory,” the IDF said. “During the protocol, IDF soldiers will drape the hostages’ coffins with Israeli flags, salute them, and recite a chapter from the Book of Psalms.”
Once in Israel, the coffins will be brought to the National Center of Forensic Medicine for identifications, the IDF said.
President Donald Trump claimed at the peace summit in Egypt that “the war in Gaza is over,” though only the first phase of an agreement has been reached.
“Together we’ve achieved what everybody said was impossible -- at long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” Trump said to the more than 30 world leaders gathered at the summit.
The president said now “the rebuilding begins,” and he said rebuilding may be the “easiest part.”
"All the momentum now is toward a great, glorious and lasting peace, and our commitment to fulfilling the 20-point plan we developed together will be the crucial foundation for achieving that bright future," Trump said. "And it's being worked on right now as we speak, and we're actually in stage three and four."
Phase one has now been agreed upon, and Trump said in earlier remarks in Egypt that phase two of ceasefire negotiations has started.
"Where we can be long advanced on some of the things that we say we're going to do, we can take them out of order in a positive way," Trump explained.
The Red Cross is now in possession of two more coffins of deceased hostages, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Security Agency said.
A total of four bodies of deceased hostages are now on their way to IDF forces.
According to the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, all 20 living hostages and the bodies of all 28 deceased hostages still being held in Gaza were supposed to be returned to Israel on Monday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the return of only four bodies is a “failure to meet commitments” of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, and he said “any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a blatant violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly.”
