U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday toured a U.S.-led center in Israel overseeing the Gaza ceasefire, as the Trump administration worked to set up an international security force in the territory and shore up the tenuous truce between Israel and Hamas.

As a guarantor of the cease-fire, Turkey is keen to play a role in Gaza’s future, seeing political and economic benefits. Israel is having none of it.

Hamas committed to returning all living and deceased captives being held in the strip as part of the ceasefire deal reached earlier this month.

Over the past eleven days, 195 bodies have been returned to Gaza by Israeli authorities, in exchange for the bodies of 13 Israeli hostages, under the terms of Donald Trump's ceasefire deal. Two other bodies – those of Nepalese and Thai hostages – have also been returned by Hamas.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel on Tuesday to shore up the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza that has teetered over the past few days following a burst of deadly violence and questions over how to move forward with the plan for cementing a long-term peace.

Egypt sent a team of experts into the Gaza Strip this weekend to help locate the bodies of deceased hostages as part of an international effort to shore up the fragile ceasefire in the territory, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Sunday.

A collective funeral ceremony was held Wednesday in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, for 54 unidentified Palestinians whose bodies were returned from Israel, the Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD) reported.

A total of 195 bodies were transported by the Red Cross to the hospital in southern Gaza since last week, when a ceasefire agreement to end the war between Israel and Hamas was put in place.

However, Israel has said it is keeping the crossing closed until Hamas "fulfils" its commitments under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal by returning the bodies of deceased hostages. Israel has kept the Gaza side of the Egyptian border closed since May 2024 when it took control during the war.

The International Court of Justice said Israel must work with U.N. agencies, including UNRWA, the group for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has banned.

The drone operation was carried out with Israel's consent and is being used to monitor ground activity in the area. The United States is flying surveillance drones over the Gaza Strip to monitor the US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas,