When Israeli forensic experts opened the fourth coffin handed over by Hamas on Tuesday night they discovered something that should alarm anyone hoping this fragile ceasefire might hold: the body of a Gazan, not an Israeli hostage.
Whether this was deliberate deception or catastrophic incompetence hardly matters now. The damage is done.
Hamas had one job in this exchange—return the bodies of 28 deceased hostages as agreed. Instead, they’ve delivered eight bodies over several days, claimed they can’t find nine others buried under rubble, and now this: sending back an unidentified Palestinian corpse while three grieving Israeli families—the Baruchs, the Nimrodis, and the Levys—will finally get to bury their dead.
This isn’t just a “mix-up.” It’s political dynamite.
Israel’s far-right has been chomping at the bit for an excuse to torpedo this ceasefire since day one. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir immediately pounced, calling Hamas “Nazi terror” and demanding Israel “immediately halt all aid supplies entering the Strip.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has been equally vocal. These aren’t fringe voices anymore; they’re in Netanyahu’s cabinet, and they have the power to collapse his government.
Hamas know this. They know that every delay, every missing body, every perceived slight would be weaponized by Israeli hardliners. They know hostage families are watching, that public anger is mounting, that Netanyahu is under immense pressure from both sides.
And yet, here we are.
The ceasefire isn’t even a week old, and already we’re seeing Israeli officials threatening to halve humanitarian aid (they did), close the Rafah crossing (they did), and restart military operations. President Trump—whose unwavering leadership made deal passible—posted that “THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED!” in all caps.
When you’ve lost Trump’s patience, you’re in trouble.
Hamas claims it’s doing its best to locate bodies under rubble from Israeli bombing. That may well be true. Gaza is a landscape of destruction. But perception matters in diplomacy, and right now, the perception is that Hamas is unwilling to fulfill its most basic commitments.
“Rather than focusing on finding those missing bodies, Hamas seems more interested in what we’ve seen in recent viral videos: remaining in power through public executions of supposed collaborators. That’s not a government preparing for peace. That’s a regime worried about survival. And right now they are playing with fire by not immediately returning the remaining 21 dead hostages.
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