Fears are growing that Hamas may not be able to find all the bodies of the dead Israeli hostages due for release under Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal.

The US President said that some of the 28 captives who have been killed – and whose repatriation is expected to get under way tonight – were being ‘unearthed’ and declared it a ‘tragedy’.

Hamas has until midday tomorrow local time to return the bodies along with 20 living hostages as part of the agreement for the first phase of the peace plan.

If the terror group does not do so it risks complicating the next phases and will add to the anguish of relatives who simply want to bury their dead.

A joint multinational task force led by Israel, the US, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt is being established to locate any bodies that are not returned. 

Mr Trump, who is due to arrive in Jerusalem tomorrow morning, told reporters: ‘They are getting the bodies; approximately 28 bodies. Some of those bodies are being unearthed right now as we speak. It’s a tragedy.’

The President plans to give a historic address to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and hopes to visit some of the freed hostages.

He will then fly to Egypt to discuss the future of Gaza with ‘a lot of leaders’, including representatives from the UK, Germany, France, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Indonesia.

‘It’s a great deal for Israel, but it’s a great deal for everybody,’ Mr Trump declared.

His comments came as US troops began to arrive in Israel as part of a 200-strong force that will help to oversee the Gaza ceasefire.

Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of the US military’s Central Command, was seen in Tel Aviv with lieutenant general Eyal Zamir, chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

They then travelled with US special envoy Steve Witkoff to visit an Israeli army post in the Gaza Strip to confirm the IDF had pulled back to the agreed withdrawal line. 

While no US boots will be deployed on the ground in the war-ravaged territory, American troops will oversee logistics from Israel.

Some 50,000 refugees arrived in Gaza City yesterday, bringing the total number to return to their homes across the Strip to 250,000. 

One, Raja Salmi, told how she walked for hours to find the wreckage of her home in the territory’s capital. ‘It no longer exists. It’s just a pile of rubble,’ she said. ‘I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust.’

In a further sign of difficulties ahead, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine released a joint statement rejecting any ‘foreign guardianship’ over Gaza. 

It puts in jeopardy the plan to have a Board of Peace, with members including former Prime Minister Tony Blair helping to govern the Strip until it is handed to a Palestinian body.

The terror groups stressed that any governance must be a purely internal Palestinian matter.

Meanwhile Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun condemned Israel for carrying out overnight strikes which killed one and injured seven.

Israel struck a peace deal with Hezbollah, the terror group that rules the south of Lebanon, in November. But it struck overnight on Friday, claiming it had targeted heavy machinery to use ‘for rebuilding its terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon’.

Mr Aoun called for Lebanon to have a similar peace plan to Gaza following the conflict.

Hezbollah started firing rockets at Israel a day after Hamas’ October 7 atrocity until their leadership was decapitated following Israel’s daring exploding pagers operation in September last year.

Last night, there was heartbreak in Israel after it was revealed that Roei Shalev, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, had killed himself after struggling following the death of his girlfriend, Mapal Adam, on October 7.

His mother also killed herself days after the attack.

On Friday, he posted a note on his Instagram account, saying that he couldn’t ‘go on any more’. ‘I’ve never felt such deep and burning pain and suffering in my life. It’s eating me up inside,’ he wrote.

His body was later found inside a burning car on a beach in Netanya.