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CAIRO: Hamas expanded its search for the bodies of hostages in new areas in the Gaza Strip Sunday, the Palestinian group said, a day after Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help retrieve the bodies.
Under the fragile US-brokered ceasefire, reached on Oct. 10, Hamas is expected to return all of the remains Israeli hostages as soon as possible. Israel agreed to give back 15 bodies of Palestinians for every body of a hostage.
Thus far, Israel has sent back the bodies of 195 Palestinians. Hamas has since returned 18 bodies of hostages, but in the past five days, failed to release any.
An Egyptian team in Gaza
An Egyptian team and heavy equipment, including an excavator and bulldozers, entered Gaza Saturday to help search for the hostages’ bodies, part of efforts by international mediators to shore up the ceasefire, two Egyptian officials said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Hamas’ chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, said the Palestinian group started searching in new areas for 13 bodies of hostages that remain in the enclave, according to comments shared by the group early Sunday.
US President Donald Trump warned Saturday that he was “watching very closely” to ensure Hamas returns more bodies within the next 48 hours. “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Al-Hayya, who is also Hamas’ top negotiator, told an Egyptian media outlet last week that efforts to retrieve the bodies faced challenges because of the massive destruction, burying them deep underground.
Israeli strikes wound four in central Gaza
Israeli forces struck the central Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza on Saturday night, for the second time in a week, according to Awda Hospital that received the wounded.
The Israeli military claimed it targeted militants associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group who were planning to attack Israeli troops.
Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in Gaza, denied it was preparing for an attack.
Hamas called the strike a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to sabotage Trump’s efforts to end the war.
It was the same area that Israel targeted in a series of strikes on Oct. 19, after the military accused Hamas militants of killing two Israeli soldiers. That day, Israel launched dozens of deadly strikes across Gaza, killing at least 36 Palestinians, including women and children, according to the strip’s health authorities. It was the most serious challenge to the fragile ceasefire.
Saturday’s strike in Nuseirat came a few hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left Israel, the latest in a series of top US officials to visit Israel and a new center for civilian and military coordination that is attempting to oversee the ceasefire. US Vice President JD Vance was in Israel earlier this week, and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, were also in Israel.
Rubio said Saturday, en route to Qatar, that Israel, the US and the other mediators of the Gaza ceasefire deal are sharing information to disrupt any threats and that allowed them to identify a possible impending attack last weekend.
Around 200 US troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries at the coordination center, planning the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza.

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said on Sunday it had taken full control of El-Fasher, the last major urban center in western Darfur still outside its hands.
In a statement, the RSF claimed it had “extended control over the city of El-Fasher from the grip of mercenaries and militias,” referring to the Sudanese army, which it has been fighting since April 2023.
AFP could not independently verify the claim and the army and its allies did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier, the group said it had captured the army’s headquarters in the city, which it has had under siege since April 2024.
Local pro-army fighters, the Popular Resistance, accused the RSF of running a “media disinformation campaign” to weaken morale, insisting residents were still “resisting in the face of terrorist militias.”

Turning point

Since August, the RSF has intensified artillery and drone attacks on El-Fasher, eroding the army’s last defensive lines after more than 18 months of siege.
RSF videos on Sunday appeared to show army vehicles retreating from its headquarters and fighters celebrating at the Sixth Infantry Division base.
Footage from Nyala, the South Darfur state capital, showed crowds celebrating alongside RSF fighters.
If confirmed, the capture of the city would mark a major turning point in Sudan’s two-year war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people.
It would bring all five Darfur state capitals under RSF control, consolidating its recently established parallel administration in Nyala.
Analysts have warned this could effectively partition Sudan, with the army holding the north, east and center, and the RSF dominating Darfur and parts of the south.

Humanitarian disaster

Around 260,000 civilians, half of them children, remain trapped in El-Fasher without aid or food.
Four UN agencies warned on Thursday that thousands of malnourished children are at “imminent risk of death” amid the collapse of health services.
Reports of killings, sexual violence and forced recruitment were mounting daily, they added.
The UN had earlier voiced alarm over potential massacres targeting non-Arab communities in El-Fasher, similar to those reported after the RSF captured the nearby Zamzam camp in April.
Despite repeated international appeals, the two sides, who have both been accused of committing atrocities, have ignored calls for a ceasefire.
Representatives from the United States, Egypt, �������� and the United Arab Emirates met in Washington on Friday to “advance collective efforts toward peace and stability in Sudan” and a transition to civilian rule, according to US’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos.
The four countries reaffirmed their support for a September peace proposal that called for a three-month truce, followed by a permanent ceasefire and civilian governance, but the meeting appeared to yield little tangible progress.