Aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel resumed preparations to open the major Rafah crossing after a dispute over the return of the bodies of dead hostages that had threatened to derail the delicate ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Israel had threatened to maintain Rafah shut and reduce aid supplies because Hamas was returning bodies too slowly, showing the risks to a truce that has stopped two years of devastating conflict in Gaza and freed all living hostages held by Hamas.
Nonetheless, the militant group returned more Israeli bodies overnight, and an Israeli security official said on Wednesday preparations were under option to open Rafah to Gazan residents, while a second official said that 600 aid trucks would go in.
Dispute over hostage bodies
Hamas returned 4 bodies confirmed as dead hostages on Monday and one other 4 bodies late on Tuesday, though Israeli authorities said one in every of those bodies was not that of a hostage.
The dispute over the return of bodies still has the potential to upset the ceasefire deal together with other major issues which might be yet to be resolved.
Later phases of the truce call for Hamas to disarm and cede power, which it has to this point refused to do. It has launched a security crackdown, parading its power in Gaza through public executions and clashes with local clans.
Longer-term elements of the ceasefire plan, including how Gaza might be governed, the make-up of a world force to take over there and moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state have yet to emerge.
Twenty-one bodies of hostages remain in Gaza, though some could also be hard to search out or recuperate due to destruction in the course of the conflict. A world task force is supposed to search out them.
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The deal also requires Israel to return the bodies of 360 Palestinians. The primary group of 45 was handed over on Tuesday and the bodies were being identified, said Palestinian health authorities.
The conflict has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with nearly all inhabitants driven from their homes, a worldwide hunger monitor saying famine was present within the enclave and health authorities overwhelmed.
“Our situation is utterly tragic. We went back to our homes within the al-Tuffah neighborhood and located there are not any homes in any respect. There isn’t a shelter. Nothing,” said Moemen Hassanein in Gaza City, with tents and shanties behind him.
Reuters video showed a primary group of trucks moving from the Egyptian side of the border into the Rafah crossing at dawn on Wednesday, some tankers carrying fuel and others loaded with pallets of aid.
Nonetheless, it was not clear if that convoy would complete its crossing into Gaza as a part of the 600 trucks that were attributable to enter the enclave on Wednesday – the complete day by day complement required under the ceasefire plan. Aid trucks entered Gaza through other crossings.
“Humanitarian aid continues to enter the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and other crossings after Israeli security inspection,” the Israeli security official said.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported that Wednesday’s aid deliveries would come with food, medical supplies, fuel, cooking gas and equipment to repair vital infrastructure.
Underscoring the political challenges facing the truce, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an opponent of the ceasefire plan, said on X that the help delivery was a “disgrace.”
“Nazi terrorism understands only force, and the one option to solve problems with it’s to wipe it off the face of the earth,” he added, accusing Hamas of lies and abuse over the return of hostages’ bodies.
Rafah is attributable to be opened to Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza either entering or exiting the enclave. But those awaiting medical evacuation told Reuters they’d not yet received notification to organize for travel.
The Palestinian Authority, which governs within the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is preparing to operate the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which it previously did with EU assistance. Israel closed the crossing in 2007 after Hamas took over the enclave, but later allowed some movement through it under an agreement with Egypt.
Several other Palestinian factions present in Gaza have backed the days-long Hamas security crackdown because it battles local clans that had tried to take over areas of the territory in the course of the conflict.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one in every of the groups backing the Hamas crackdown, described the clans being targeted as “hubs of crime.”
The ceasefire envisaged Hamas initially restoring order in Gaza and U.S. President Donald Trump, who brokered the deal, endorsed Hamas’ crackdown on rival gangs, while warning it will face airstrikes if it didn’t later disarm.
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemned the general public executions after a video, authenticated by Reuters, showed masked gunmen shooting dead seven certain, kneeling men in a Gaza street.
Israeli forces inside Gaza have pulled back to what the truce deal calls a yellow line just outside the major cities. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said it will immediately implement any violation of the road.