An Israeli group campaigning for the return of all hostages held in Gaza on Thursday demanded that the government delay implementing the next stages of the truce if Hamas fails to return the remaining captives' bodies.

In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government to "immediately halt the implementation of any further stages of the agreement as long as Hamas continues to blatantly violate its obligations regarding the return of all hostages and the remains of the victims".

Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa will ask Russia to hand over former ruler Bashar al-Assad during his first visit to Moscow on Wednesday, a government official said.

Israel was expected to allow Gaza's sole border crossing to the outside world to reopen Wednesday to allow aid into the devastated territory as part of a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal.

Israeli public broadcaster KAN said the reopening was imminent despite questions over Hamas's ongoing transfer of the remains of deceased hostages, under a swap deal spearheaded by U.S. President Donald Trump after two years of war.

The bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been in Israeli custody were handed over to a Gaza hospital Tuesday, the Nasser Medical Centre said.

Under a ceasefire deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.

The tenuous ceasefire in the two-year Israel-Hamas war was holding Tuesday even as complex issues remained ahead, a day after widespread jubilation over the return to Israel of the last 20 living hostages held in Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange.

After the release of the last living hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees, the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza was holding Tuesday while questions remain over other key parts of a U.S. plan for the region.

The long list of uncertainties includes when Hamas will return to Israel the bodies of the 24 hostages believed to be dead in Gaza, and Israel's insistence that a weakened Hamas disarm. The future governance of Gaza is unclear.

President Donald Trump is back in Washington after urging leaders across the Mideast to put "old feuds" aside. He met with more than 20 government leaders in Egypt to celebrate a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and discuss future of the largely destroyed Gaza Strip. His whirlwind trip came at a fragile moment of hope for ending two years of war between Israel and Hamas.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson predicted the shutdown now entering its 14th day may become the longest in history. He said he "won't negotiate" with Democrats until they pause their health care demands and reopen. He also claimed he's unaware of the details of the firings of thousands of federal workers as the Trump administration seizes on the shutdown to reduce government.

Israel and Hamas moved ahead on a key first step of the tenuous Gaza ceasefire agreement on Monday by freeing hostages and prisoners, raising hopes that the U.S.-brokered deal might lead to a permanent end to the two-year war that ravaged the Palestinian territory.

But thornier issues such as whether Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza — and the question of Palestinian statehood — remain unresolved, highlighting the fragility of an agreement that for now only pauses the deadliest conflict in the history of Israel and the Palestinians.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he "will decide what I think is right" on a long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trump made a brief visit to the Middle East to join regional leaders Monday in signing a declaration meant to cement a ceasefire in Gaza after two years of war.

Several people were killed over the weekend in Gaza City in violent clashes between Hamas security forces and the members of an armed clan, multiple sources reported on Monday.