US concerned about Hamas delaying Trump’s Gaza plan, says former Israeli ambassador to Germany

Israeli diplomat Jeremy Issacharoff, who served as Israel’s ambassador to Germany from 2017 to 2022 and previously held senior positions in the Foreign Ministry, said the United States is “very concerned” that the Hamas terrorist organization has delayed the implementation of the first phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan.

Earlier this month, Hamas released the final 20 living Israeli hostages after nearly two years in captivity in Gaza. However, Hamas has so far failed to return all 28 deceased hostages, as required under the ceasefire deal.

“I think that Hamas could well have more knowledge about the location of the deceased hostages, and they might be using this to increase the time span [so] that they can resuscitate their power,” Issacharoff stated.

Issacharoff maintains that Washington needs to pressure Turkey and Qatar, two countries with close ties to Hamas, to make the jihadist organization comply with the terms of the deal.

“I think the prime minister would want to see clear indications from America that she's intending to pressure all the parties involved – including not just Hamas, but also Turkey and Qatar – in order to pressure Hamas more to complete the first phase of the withdrawal,” Issacharoff said.

Hamas officials have claimed they do not know the exact locations of the remaining deceased hostages and have requested heavy equipment to help retrieve the bodies. However, Israeli officials believe Hamas likely knows the whereabouts of most of them.

An Israeli official, speaking anonymously to Ynet News, said Hamas may be unaware of the locations of three to five of the remaining 13 deceased hostages in Gaza. However, the official asserted that Hamas is “playing games, and playing for time, in order to extend the ceasefire without reaching the second stage [of the deal], which requires it to disarm.” He also noted that two of the remaining deceased hostages are American citizens.

“Israel is pounding the table on the issue of the deceased, and the Americans understand us. Among the deceased are also two American citizens,” referring to the murdered Israeli soldiers, Captain Omer Neutra and Staff Sgt. Itay Chen.

While the shaky ceasefire is holding, Issacharoff emphasized that Trump’s Gaza deal will not advance to the next stage until Hamas returns all of the remaining deceased hostages and argued that Hamas must be disarmed and removed from power.

During his latest visit to Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Israel has met its ceasefire commitments and stressed that Hamas must disarm.

“Everyone who signed onto this plan, all of these other countries, agreed, everyone agreed, that Hamas cannot govern, and cannot be involved in governing the future of Gaza. Everyone’s agreed to that,” Rubio stated.

Hamas' political leaders in Qatar have signaled a willingness to disarm, while the leaders in Gaza have insisted on maintaining what they term 'defense weapons', including machine guns.