Red Cross seen aiding Hamas in search of hostages’ bodies in Rafah area
Red Cross teams are operating in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, joining Egyptian search teams in the efforts to locate bodies of dead hostages amid the rubble in the Strip, according to a Sunday report.
Hamas claims it has not yet been able to locate the bodies of some of the remaining 13 hostages, and has not returned any bodies since Tuesday. However, Israel is reportedly “certain” the terror group can hand over more bodies but is refusing to do so, and is also holding back information about their location, in a direct breach of the October 9 hostage-ceasefire agreement.
The Qatari Al-Araby channel first reported that the Red Cross was expected to enter Rafah to look for hostages’ remains Sunday morning.
The outlet later published footage of Hamas members — reportedly from the “Shadow Unit” of the group’s military wing, which is responsible for guarding hostages — together with a Red Cross vehicle in the al-Mawasi area near Rafah, west of Rafah city itself.
The area is not under IDF control.
According to the report, Hamas and the Red Cross are present there in search of the body of a hostage.
תיעוד חריג של הצלב האדום ואנשי יחידת הצל של חמאס (השומרת על חטופים) באזור מוואסי רפיח (מערבית לעיר רפיח) לא באזור השליטה של צה”ל. פורסם באל-ערבי הקטרי בנוהל. לכאורה נמצאים באזור כדי לחפש אחר שרידי חלל חטוף pic.twitter.com/sJyLhfuAIs
— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) October 26, 2025
In addition, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera channel reported that Red Cross teams were expected to enter the Yellow Line region in Gaza City — the area in which Israeli forces are still operating — to help in the search for hostages’ bodies.
Responding to the reports, the International Committee of the Red Cross said: “The International Committee of the Red Cross is currently operating in Gaza as a neutral intermediary, at the request of the parties, to facilitate the return of the remains of hostages who are no longer alive, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement. To ensure the safety of those involved, we will not comment further on the different reports at this stage.”
Israel is also reportedly searching for hostages’ bodies within the half of Gaza it controls. According to Kan, a security official told the families of deceased captives that a search is underway based on an intelligence assessment.
תיעוד מעזה: הכלים הכבדים והצוותים המצרים שנכנסו הערב לרצועה, כדי לסייע באיתור החטופים החללים pic.twitter.com/g9ktkSto20
— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) October 25, 2025
A day earlier, an Israeli defense official said that an Egyptian team entered the Strip with several engineering vehicles to assist with locating the hostages’ remains.
The move was personally approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his office told The Times of Israel.
“It is a technical team,” the PMO said. “They are going in only to locate the slain hostages.”
Until Saturday, Israel had not approved the entry of such teams, claiming that Hamas was capable of finding and returning the bodies itself.
Photographs published by AFP Sunday showed dozens of additional Egyptian heavy engineering vehicles lining up to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
Channel 12 cited Israeli sources as saying they expect Hamas to return two more bodies on Sunday amid increasing pressure from mediators, who told the terror group that US President Donald Trump is close to declaring it responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire agreement.
The outlet also reported that after several days of Hamas failing to hand over hostages’ bodies, Israel over the weekend considered halting aid deliveries in order to pressure the group into fulfilling its end of the deal, but the Trump administration blocked the move, fearing it would lead to the collapse of the truce.
“As far as he’s concerned, harming humanitarian aid is a red line,” the report quoted American officials as saying of the US president.
Trump on Saturday warned he was watching “very closely” and expected Hamas to release hostages’ bodies in the next 48 hours in line with the terms of the deal.
Before the ceasefire, Hamas was holding the bodies of 28 dead hostages. It has since returned 15 of them, along with releasing all 20 surviving hostages, of the 251 total who were abducted during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel that precipitated the war in Gaza.
