Hamas says it needs special equipment to recover more hostages' bodies

Thomson Reuters 

Israel said on Thursday it was preparing for the reopening of Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt to let Palestinians in and out, but set no date for its completion as it traded blame with Hamas over violations of the U.S.-mediated ceasefire.

A fight over the return of bodies of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza retains the potential to upend the truce along with other major planks of the plan yet to be resolved, including disarmament of militants and Gaza's future governance.

Israel demanded that Hamas fulfil its obligations in turning over the bodies of the 28 deceased hostages. The Islamist faction said it had handed over 10 bodies, but Israel said one of them was not that of a hostage.

"We will not compromise on this, and we will spare no effort until our fallen hostages return, every last one of them," Israel's government spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The armed wing of Hamas said the handover of more bodies in Gaza, which was reduced to vast tracts of rubble by the war, would require the admission of heavy machinery and excavating equipment into the Israel-blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Israel is applying pressure on Hamas by refusing to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza until the bodies of more hostages are repatriated.

On Thursday, a senior Hamas official accused Israel of flouting the ceasefire by having killed at least 24 people in shootings since Friday and said a list of such violations was handed over to mediators.

"The occupying state is working day and night to undermine the agreement through its violations on the ground," he said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the Hamas accusations.

It has previously said that some Palestinians have ignored warnings not to approach Israeli ceasefire positions and troops "opened fire to remove the threat."

Next phase to require Hamas to disarm

Israel has said the next phase of the 20-point plan to end the war engineered by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration calls for Hamas to relinquish its weapons and cede power, which it has so far refused to do.

Hamas has instead launched a security crackdown in urban areas vacated by Israeli forces, parading its power through public executions and clashes with local armed clans.

Twenty remaining living hostages were freed on Monday in exchange for thousands of Palestinians held in Israel.

Later on Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry said Israel had released 30 bodies of Palestinians killed during the conflict, taking the total of bodies it has received since Monday to 120.

Longer-term elements of Trump's plan, including the makeup of an international "stabilization force" for the small, densely populated territory and moves towards creating a Palestinian state — rejected by Israel — have yet to be hashed out.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Thursday the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) would work with international institutions and partners to address Gaza's security, logistical, financial and governance challenges.

WATCH | How Hamas has been acting since the ceasefire went into effect:

An upcoming conference in Egypt on Gaza’s reconstruction would need to clarify how donor funds are organized, who would receive them and how they would be disbursed, he told reporters.

Hamas ejected the PA from Gaza in a brief civil war in 2007.

Huge increase of aid needed

In a statement on Thursday, Israel's military aid agency COGAT said co-ordination was underway with Egypt to decide a date for reopening the Rafah crossing for movement of people after completing the necessary preparations.

COGAT said the Rafah crossing would not open for aid as this was not stipulated by the truce deal at any stage, rather all humanitarian goods bound for Gaza would pass through Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom after undergoing security inspections.

With famine conditions present in parts of Gaza, the UN's head of humanitarian affairs Tom Fletcher told Reuters Wednesday that thousands of aid vehicles would now have to enter Gaza weekly to ease the crisis.

Aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel said 600 had been approved to go in under the truce. Fletcher called that a "good base" but nowhere near enough, with medical care also scarce and most of the 2.2 million population homeless.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza media office, said the quantities of aid that had entered Gaza since the fighting subsided were a "drop in the ocean" of what is needed.

"The region urgently requires a large, continuous, and organized inflow of aid, fuel, cooking gas, and relief and medical supplies," he told Reuters.

Much of the heavily urbanized coastal enclave has been rendered a wasteland by Israeli bombardments and airstrikes that have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

The war was triggered by Hamas' Oct.7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.