He US Secretary of State, Marco Rubiopromised this Saturday that the remains of all Hamas hostages died in captivity in Loop will return to Israel. It was in the context of a meeting with relatives of two soldiers whose bodies still remain in the Strip.
“We will not forget the lives of the Hamas hostages who died in captivity,” Rubio said in a message on the social network X. There he clarified that today he met “with the families of American citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra” and that “we will not rest until his remains – and those of everyone – are returned,” he added.
The US said it will not rest until Hamas returns the remains of all the hostages in Gaza
For his part, the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Personsthe main organization of those close to the hostages, thanked Rubio for his statements.
Chen, a 19-year-old dual Israeli-American sergeant, was killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Neutra, also an Israeli-American, was a 21-year-old volunteer soldier and died the same day as the attack that sparked the subsequent war in Gaza.
Under the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, promoted by the US, the group handed over the 20 live hostages it had held hostage since the attack along with the remains of 15 hostages who died in captivity, while the bodies of 13 others still remain in Gaza.
Hamas claims it is having logistical difficulties finding the bodies of the rest in the ruins of Gaza. In exchange for the returned hostages, Israel released nearly 2,000 prisoners, mostly Palestinians, along with the remains of dozens of deceased Palestinians who were in Israeli territory.
Blond stressed this Friday from the new Civil Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, near the Gaza Strip, that Hamas will not have any involvement or govern the Gaza Strip in the future.
And he added: “The world needs to understand that on the other side of that yellow line (the area where the Army has withdrawn within Gaza) there is still an armed terrorist group that we have seen act against its own population.”
Gaza is buried under 61 million tons of rubble, the UN warned
Loop is buried under more than 61 million tons of debris after two years of war. Thus, three quarters of the buildings were destroyed, according to data collected from the United Nations Organization (UN)
The information was analyzed by AFP. The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which came into force on October 10 under pressure from US President Donald Trump, paves the way for reconstruction of the devastated territory.
As of July 8, 2025, the Israeli army had damaged nearly 193,000 buildings in the densely populated territorythat is, 78% of the structures existing before the conflict began on October 7, 2023, according to the satellite analysis of the United Nations UNOSAT program.
Source: Ambito
