Islamic Jihad withholds bodies of Israeli and foreign hostages as global mediators intensify pressure on Hamas to fulfill ceasefire obligations.
A grim revelation from Gaza has once again exposed the depth of barbarity within the Palestinian terror factions. According to a Palestinian Arab source cited by Kan Reshet Bet, the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is holding the bodies of at least two of the four Israeli and foreign hostages who were murdered during the October 7 massacre and remain in Gaza.
Despite weeks of mediation, Islamic Jihad has refused to release the remains, defying international demands and prolonging the agony of grieving families in Israel. The source involved in the negotiations said the terror group is “nearing a breaking point,” but has not yet agreed to transfer the bodies — a move Israel sees as a moral and humanitarian imperative.
The four victims whose bodies remain in Gaza are Police Officer Ran Gvili, Meni Godard, Dror Or of Kibbutz Be’eri, and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, who was kidnapped while working in Israel’s south.
Mediators, led by Turkey with backing from the United States, have intensified pressure on Hamas to complete this phase of the ceasefire agreement — one that Israel insists must precede any further reconstruction of Gaza. Yet Hamas continues to claim “difficulty” locating the bodies, an excuse Israeli officials call both cynical and false.
For the families, the wait has been unbearable. Each day that passes without the return of their loved ones deepens the wound of October 7 — the day when the promise of “Never Again” was tested once more.
Israeli officials reaffirm that no reconstruction of Gaza will proceed until every hostage and body is returned. “We are a nation that does not abandon its dead,” said one senior security source. “Whether they are alive or fallen, every Israeli comes home.”
As diplomatic pressure mounts, Israel’s message remains resolute — murderers who desecrate the dead will face both justice and judgment, and every Israeli life, in body or memory, will be brought home under the blue and white flag.
