The terrorist organization wants to extend the ceasefire before implementing the next phase of the agreement - and has not handed over any hostages to Israel for 3 days. Despite Israel's early preparations to return two martyrs, senior political officials told Ynet:"There is no such indication at the moment." American officials pledge every day that the martyrs will be returned - but the force to locate them is still being built up.

Itamar Eichner

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It has been three days since Hamas handed over any hostages to Israel, despite Israel's assessment that it could return at least eight more casualties. This morning (Friday), the police said that they had been instructed to prepare for the possibility that two casualties would be recovered in the evening, but so far there are no clear indications that Hamas is indeed preparing for this possibility."We are seeing signs of efforts by everyone to locate the casualties, including Hamas," senior political sources told Ynet this evening.

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The 13 kidnapped people still in Gaza (Photo: IDF Spokesperson, courtesy of the families)

The sources noted that "up until this moment, we have not received any notification that the dead will be returned tonight, nor is there any indication, but they may surprise us. At this stage, we are continuing and are confident that with the right effort from everyone, they will be able to return everyone." Despite Hamas's dragging its feet, a source familiar with the details said this evening that"there are currently no sanctions because the US does not allow us to impose sanctions."

Amid the upheaval of the families, who fear that with the end of the war and the return of the living abductees, their loved ones will be forgotten, a senior Israeli official earlier told Ynet that Hamas could return eight more dead abductees, but there are five more whose whereabouts he does not know."It is playing games and stalling for time to extend the ceasefire even without the second stage arriving in which it is required to disarm," he claimed.

On Tuesday evening, Hamas returned the kidnapped Palestinians to Israel.

Arie (Zalman) Zalmanovich

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Tamir Adar

There are now 13 hostages remaining in captivity - out of the 28 who were there when the agreement was launched.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived at the US headquarters in Kiryat Gat today at noon, and said that the US is pushing for all the dead hostages to be returned, and expects both sides to fulfill their commitments to prevent the collapse of the agreement."The dead will be returned, and if not, the agreement will be broken - but it will happen," he said.

This was also promised by US President Donald Trump, and the other senior American officials who arrived in the last two weeks - but the international force to locate casualties has not yet begun its work - at least not as a force that physically goes out into the field. The senior official who spoke to Ynet said that"Israel is banging on the table regarding the casualties, and the Americans understand us. After all, there are also two American citizens among the casualties (Captain Omar Nowtra and Sergeant Itay Chen; AA)."

Hamas transfers dead hostages to the Red Cross (Photo: AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)

Israel claims that the fact that Hamas is releasing the dead in batches constitutes a violation of the agreement, and explains that although it was known that extracting the bodies from the rubble would be complex - in practice the terrorist organization could have returned more dead at this stage.

Hamas, on the other hand, says that the difficulties are only logistical, and that they need, among other things, heavy equipment to locate some of the casualties. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even claimed today that Hamas is respecting the agreement while Israel is violating it through its attacks, adding that"the United States must pressure Israel to comply. Israel must be forced to do so through sanctions and stopping arms sales."

He said,"We are making the necessary preparations for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. It is necessary to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel. The details regarding the stability force that will play its role in Gaza are still unclear and discussions are ongoing."