Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday that the war in Gaza wouldn’t be over until Hamas was disarmed and the Palestinian territory demilitarised.
His declaration came as Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said it would hand over the remains of two further hostages on Saturday night.
The Israeli military said a Red Cross team was en route to receive “several” bodies just before 11:00pm (2000 GMT).
The issue of the dead hostages still in Gaza has become a sticking point in the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire, with Israel linking the reopening of the key Rafah crossing between the territory and Egypt to the issue.
Netanyahu cautioned, however, that completing the ceasefire’s second phase was essential to ending the war, saying late on Saturday that “Phase B also involves the disarming of Hamas — or more precisely, the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, following the stripping of Hamas of its weapons”.
“When that is successfully completed — hopefully in an easy way, but if not, in a hard way — then the war will end,” he added in an appearance on right-wing Israeli Channel 14.
The group has so far resisted the idea and since the pause in fighting has moved to reassert its control over the Gaza Strip.
Under the ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Hamas has so far released all 20 living hostages, along with the remains of nine Israelis and one Nepalese.
The most recent handover was on Friday night, that of the body identified by Israel as Eliyahu Margalit, who died aged 75 in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and 135 other bodies of Palestinians since the truce came into effect on October 10.
Hamas has said it needs time and technical assistance to recover the remaining bodies, which it says are buried under Gaza’s rubble.
The two bodies to be returned on Saturday “were recovered earlier today” the al-Qassam Brigades said on Telegram.
Netanyahu on Saturday linked the reopening of the vital Rafah crossing to Egypt with Hamas returning all the bodies of hostages still in Gaza.
The Palestinian mission in Cairo announced that the crossing could open as early as Monday, though only for Gazans living in Egypt who wished to return to the territory.
Shortly after, however, Netanyahu’s office said he had “directed that the Rafah crossing remain closed until further notice”.
“Its reopening will be considered based on how Hamas fulfils its part in returning the hostages and the bodies of the deceased, and in implementing the agreed-upon framework,” it said, referring to the week-old ceasefire deal.
Further delays to the reopening could complicate the task facing Tom Fletcher, the UN head of humanitarian relief, who was in northern Gaza on Saturday.
“I drove through here seven to eight months ago when most of these buildings were still standing and, to see the devastation — this is a vast part of the city, just a wasteland — and it’s absolutely devastating to see,” he told AFP.
Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a “massive, massive job”.
He said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes who were trying to dig latrines in the ruins.
“They’re telling me most of all they want dignity,” he said.
“We have a massive 60-day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school.”
While the Rafah crossing has yet to reopen, just over a week since the brokering of the truce, hundreds of trucks are rolling in each day via Israeli checkpoints and aid is being distributed.
According to figures supplied to mediators by the Israeli military’s civil affairs agency and released by the UN humanitarian office, on Thursday some 950 trucks carrying aid and commercial supplies crossed into Gaza from Israel.
Some violence has persisted despite the ceasefire.
Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said on Saturday that it had recovered the bodies of nine Palestinians — two men, three women and four children — from the Shaaban family after Israeli troops fired two tank shells at a bus. (Punch)
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