JERUSALEM: The lifeline Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt remained shut on Wednesday despite reports that it could reopen to aid convoys, as Israel insisted Hamas hand over the remains of the last deceased hostages it holds.
Early in the day, Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported that the crossing point would reopen, but humanitarian sources told AFP this had not happened and a government spokeswoman ignored questions on the subject.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher expressed frustration that the ceasefire, brokered by US President Donald Trump and hailed by world leaders, had yet to facilitate the scale of relief needed in the devastated Palestinian territory.
“As Hamas have agreed, they must make strenuous efforts to return all the bodies of deceased hostages, urgently. I am also gravely concerned by the evidence of violence against civilians in Gaza,” Fletcher said.
“As Israel has agreed, they must allow the massive surge of humanitarian aid — thousands of trucks a week — on which so many lives depend, and on which the world has insisted. We need more crossings open.”
- Humanitarian risk -
Meanwhile, under the Trump plan endorsed by international mediators, Israel and Hamas are expected to continue their exchange of human remains, which also hit an unexpected obstacle on Wednesday.
The swap has seen the last 20 surviving hostages return home in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails, as well as a halt in the fighting and bombardment.
So far, Hamas has handed back eight bodies, seven of which have been identified. The remains of 20 others remain in Gaza, and there is domestic pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tie aid to the fate of the bodies.
The eighth — unidentified — body was not that of a former hostage, the Israeli military said after overnight tests, leading some Israeli politicians to accuse Hamas of breaking the ceasefire agreement.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has threatened to cut off aid supplies to Gaza if Hamas fails to return the remains of soldiers still held in the territory.
Israel, meanwhile, transferred another 45 Palestinian bodies that had been in its custody to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, bringing the number handed back to 90, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
Under the Trump plan Israel is to return 15 Palestinian dead for every deceased Israeli hostage.
- Aid trucks -
The war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel led to a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with the densely-populated territory reliant on aid that was heavily restricted, when not cut off outright.
At the end of August, the United Nations declared a famine in Gaza, though Israel rejected the claim. The return of aid is listed in Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza.
Another political challenge is Hamas’s disarmament, a demand the militant group has refused to countenance.
The group is tightening its grip on the Gaza Strip’s ruined cities, launching a crackdown and executing alleged collaborators with Israel.
Hamas has published a video on its official channel showing the summary executions of eight blindfolded and kneeling people, branding them “collaborators and outlaws.”
The footage, apparently from Monday evening, emerged as armed clashes were underway between Hamas’s various security units and armed Palestinian clans, some alleged to have Israeli backing.
In the north of the territory, as Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City, the Hamas government’s black-masked armed police resumed their patrols.
“Our message is clear: There will be no place for outlaws or those who threaten the security of citizens,” a Palestinian security source in Gaza told AFP.
- ‘Perhaps violently’ -
Israel and the United States insist Hamas can have no role in a future Gaza government.
Trump’s plan says that Hamas members who agree to “decommission their weapons” will be given amnesty.
“If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” Trump told reporters at the White House a day after visiting the Middle East to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire.
“And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
