US President Donald Trump told CNN on Wednesday that he would consider allowing Israeli forces to resume fighting in Gaza if Hamas fails to uphold its end of the ceasefire deal.

“Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word. If Israel could go in and knock the crap out of them, they’d do that,” Trump was quoted as saying to CNN in a brief telephone call when asked what would happen if Hamas refused to disarm.

Hamas said earlier on Wednesday that it had handed back the remains of all the deceased hostages that it can reach, as the Israeli military said the Red Cross had received two more bodies in Gaza.

Since Monday, Hamas has handed back 20 surviving hostages to Israel in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.

Before the two bodies were handed over late on Wednesday, Hamas had already returned the remains of seven of 28 known deceased hostages – along with an eighth body which Israel said was not that of a former hostage.

But late on Wednesday, the Palestinian Islamist movement’s armed wing said it had transferred all the bodies it could find and would need specialist recovery equipment to retrieve the rest from Gaza’s ruins.