Israel said yesterday it was preparing for the reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt to let Palestinians in and out, but set no date as it traded blame with Hamas over violations of a US-mediated ceasefire.
A row 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 and Gaza’s future governance.
Government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said Israel remained committed to the agreement and continued to uphold its obligations, demanding Hamas return the bodies of the 19 deceased hostages it had not handed over.
Hamas has handed more than 10 bodies but Israel said one of them was not that of a hostage. The group has said that it has handed over all bodies it could recover.
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 blockaded enclave.
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 accusations but has previously said that some Palestinians have ignored warnings not to approach Israeli ceasefire positions and troops ‘opened fire to remove the threat’.
Israel has said the next phase of the 20-point plan to end the war engineered by US President Donald Trump’s administration calls for Hamas to relinquish its weapons and cede power.
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 jailed in Israel. The Gaza health ministry said yesterday that 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 make-up of an international ‘stabilisation force’ for the small, densely populated territory, and moves towards creating a Palestinian state have yet to be hashed out.
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