The United States is offering rewards for anyone who helps find dead hostages in the Gaza Strip
Ambassador. Waltz: No one will be left behind in Gaza
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The United States plans to offer rewards to Gazans who help find the bodies of deceased hostages held by Hamas, two senior White House advisers told reporters Wednesday evening.
“We’ll probably put together some kind of program where we’ll ask people to see if they can help us locate bodies. We’ll pay rewards for that kind of good behavior,” one advisor said.
As part of the ceasefire agreement, all twenty living hostages were returned to Israel, along with nine bodies of the dead. Nineteen other bodies have not yet been found.
Hamas claims that it does not know the whereabouts of the other bodies, and that “major efforts and special equipment” will be needed to locate them.
The Israeli army says the body handed over by Hamas does not match any hostages
Former Israeli hostage Eitan Horn embraces his family and friends after returning home Thursday, October 16, 2025, after his release under a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. (Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)
One advisor downplayed accusations that Hamas had violated the ceasefire agreements, insisting that the terms of the agreement gave priority to live hostages, and they expected that it would be difficult to find bodies in a war zone.
However, they added: “I can tell you that we will not leave here until everyone goes home.”
“We heard a lot of people saying, you know, Hamas violated the agreement, because not all the bodies were returned. I think the understanding we had with them was that we would take out all the living hostages, which they actually respected.”
Exclusive: Israeli Ambassador: There will be no peace in Gaza unless Hamas hands over all 48 hostages and disarms them
Israeli intelligence experts and Turkish retrieval experts, trained to deal with frequent earthquakes in Türkiye, will assist efforts to locate the remaining 19 bodies.
“You have to understand the complexity of the conditions on the ground,” one advisor said. “The entire Gaza Strip has been destroyed. It looks like something out of a movie. There are very few buildings left standing.”
The consultant equated the debris levels with those yet to be seen 9/11 attack On the World Trade Center. “This, I don’t know, feels like a few times more.”
Amidst the rubble are unexploded ordnance, which further complicates the process of recovering bodies.
An adviser also detailed plans to create “safe zones” behind the Yellow Line – the area still occupied by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza – for Palestinians looking to flee Hamas while the militant group carries out executions across the Strip.
Armed Hamas terrorists stand guard in Rafah, Gaza, during ongoing clashes between the movement and rival factions. (Reuters/Hatem Khaled/archive photo)
He added, “Israel is very committed to providing safety for the people of Gaza who want to live in peace. So this is a new line of effort that we requested. This was met with great enthusiasm from Israel to try to prepare this matter.”
Violent clashes between Hamas and rival groups have been reported in areas across Gaza, and videos circulating on social media appear to show executions.
An advisor told reporters that the movement asked Hamas to stop the killings.
“There have been many reports in Gaza of Hamas killings and persecution of Palestinian civilians. This is something we are working on with the mediators to send a message that we would really like to see this stop.”
Palestinian citizen Hiam Miqdad, 49, walks over the rubble of her destroyed home in Gaza City on October 15, 2025, one day after the ceasefire went into effect. (Ibrahim Hajjaj/Reuters)
“We’re seeing different behaviors on all sides, and it’s clear that President Trump and his team are working hard to minimize them.”
An Israeli military official told Fox News Digital that the killings are “Hamas’s deliberate attempt to publicly display the killings and re-establish its rule by terrorizing civilians.”
Trump suggested earlier this week that Hamas was conducting police activities and that those killed were gang members.
“[Hamas] “They wanted to stop the problems and they were open about it, and we gave them the OK for a while,” he told reporters on Monday.
“You have almost two million people returning to buildings that were demolished, and a lot of bad things can happen. So we want it to be that way — we want to be safe.”
“They took down two gangs that were very bad, very bad,” the president added Tuesday.
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“And it didn’t bother me too much, to be honest with you,” he added.
on monday, Hamas returned all living hostagesWhich shows a positive sign for the historic and fragile ceasefire agreement with Israel. In turn, the Israeli Defense Forces withdrew from Gaza to what is known as “Yellow line“, part of the first phase of the agreement.
Fox News Efrat Lakhtar contributed to this report.