In a very short statement, President Trump called out Hamas (not by name) for not returning the dead hostages as they promised, emphasizing that the job is not done because of that.
But he said Phase Two of the peace deal begins right now:
ALL TWENTY HOSTAGES ARE BACK AND FEELING AS GOOD AS CAN BE EXPECTED. A big burden has been lifted, but the job IS NOT DONE. THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED! Phase Two begins right NOW!!! President DJT
I think Trump is trying to be diplomatic in order to avoid creating barriers to getting the dead hostages out.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Hamas is supposed to released four more hostages at 3PM eastern (10PM local time), but that still leaves 20 unaccounted for:
Hamas will return the bodies of four more Israeli hostages at 10 p.m. on Tuesday night, the terror group told mediators, an official informed Reuters.
An Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post that four more bodies are expected to be returned tonight.
The reports come after Israel announced a reduction in the amount of humanitarian aid and the closure of the Rafah crossing as a punitive measure for Hamas failing to return the bodies of killed hostages.
Hamas only returned four hostage bodies on Monday because the terror group did not take the Gaza ceasefire condition seriously, an Israeli official told N12 the same day. It is only in recent hours that Israel reportedly saw Hamas attempt to locate the hostages.
Hopefully they live up to their end of the bargain, but I think they know they are giving away every bit of their leverage and that’s why they are moving so slowly. I still worry that they won’t give them all back. But we shall see.