Exclusive: Hamas says Israel’s ‘indiscriminate’ destruction of Gaza behind delay in locating captives' bodies
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A Hamas source says that, along with 10,000 Palestinians still under the rubble, locating the bodies of captives requires 'time and effort'

“As a result of the genocidal war committed by Israel, many hostages were killed with their Palestinian resistance guards, and communications were lost with some of the units responsible for the bodies,” the source told MEE.

“The Israeli public should hold Netanyahu, his cabinet, and the Israeli army responsible for the killing of these hostages and the loss of their bodies under the rubble, as more than 10,000 civilian Palestinians [are believed to be under the rubble].”

The source added [that] Hamas’s Qassam Brigades “frequently warned” that the Israeli army’s actions would lead to the deaths of captives, but “Israel did not scale back its attacks”.

“The Qassam units in charge of guarding Israelis, alive and dead, were targeted. The main difficulty [in finding the bodies] is losing contact with the guards, because the Israelis killed them.”

The source said that Hamas was committed to fulfilling its obligation under the agreement to return the remains of all of the captives, and said it was working hard to do so.

He noted that the wording of the agreement required Hamas to return the bodies “as soon as possible” and said Hamas was willing to cooperate with international entities, as agreed in the deal.

“Nothing was hidden,” he said. “[Hamas has] fulfilled its commitment with handing over the living hostages, despite all the bad faith from Israel by changing the list of the Palestinian prisoners to be released, not allowing the top names in the list to be released, and changing the list at the last minute."

“Despite that it (Hamas) fulfilled its commitments and released all alive hostages on time, as well as four dead hostages.”

The source added that Israel’s destruction of Gaza has “really changed the geography of the area”, making it “extremely difficult” to identify locations.

He condemned Israel’s decision to keep the Rafah crossing closed as a “serious infringement of the agreement” that would further hinder rescue and aid efforts.

“We call on the mediators to intervene immediately to resolve this matter,” he said.