Israel said it would restrict aid into Gaza and kept the enclave’s border shut on Tuesday while re-emergent Hamas fighters demonstrated their grip by executing men in the street, darkening the outlook for U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office confirmed late Tuesday that authorities received four deceased hostages that the Red Cross handed over to Israeli military authorities inside Gaza.
The latest transfer of remains came a day after Israel received the bodies of four other dead hostages. Despite the development, it was unclear if the Israeli military agency known as COGAT would follow through with its decision to allow into Gaza only half of the 600 aid trucks called for under the deal.
The Israeli unit told the United Nations it will only allow 300 aid trucks from Wednesday, and that no fuel or gas will be allowed in, except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure, according to a note seen by Reuters and confirmed by the United Nations.
The note said the restrictions were being taken because “Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages.”
“We’ve seen COGAT’s communication, and we encourage all parties to adhere to the parameters and agreements set out in the ceasefire,” said Eri Kaneko, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“We also hope the remains of all deceased hostages will be returned and that implementation of the ceasefire agreement moves forward.”
Trump said on Tuesday Phase Two of the ceasefire deal now begins, but also noted the delay in handing over the deceased.
“THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED! Phase Two begins right NOW!!!” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump also warned Hamas that if “they don’t disarm, we will disarm them.”
Hamas, which seized Gaza in a brief 2007 civil war, has swiftly reclaimed the streets of Gaza’s urban areas following the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops last week.
In a video circulated late on Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men with hands tied behind their backs into a Gaza City square, forced them to their knees and shot them from behind, as dozens of onlookers watched from nearby store fronts.
A Hamas source confirmed that the video was filmed on Monday and that Hamas fighters participated in the executions. Reuters was able to confirm the location by visible geographic features.
Delay in handing over bodies
Trump has previouslygiven his blessing to Hamas to reassert some control of Gaza, at least temporarily. Israeli officials have so far refrained from commenting publicly on the re-emergence of the group’s fighters.
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On Monday, Trump proclaimed the “historic dawn of a new Middle East” to Israel’s parliament, as Israel and Hamas were exchanging the last 20 living Israeli hostages in Gaza for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners.
Before the latest hostage bodies were handed over to the Red Cross, Hamas had handed over four coffins of dead hostages, leaving at least 23 presumed dead and one unaccounted for, still in the Gaza Strip.
Obstacles to permanent peace
Gaza residents said Hamas fighters were increasingly visible on Tuesday, deploying along routes needed for aid deliveries. Palestinian security officials said dozens of people had been killed in clashes between Hamas fighters and rivals in recent days.
Meanwhile, Israel, using aerial drones, killed five Palestinians as they went to check on houses in a suburb east of Gaza City, and an Israeli airstrike killed one person and injured another near Khan Younis, Gaza health authorities said.
Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire. The Israeli military said it had fired on people who crossed truce lines and approached its forces after ignoring calls to turn back.
A summit co-hosted by Trump in Egypt on Monday ended with no public announcement of major progress towards establishing an international military force for Gaza, or a new governing body.
Gaza City and surrounding areas are suffering from a famine that has afflicted more than half a million Palestinians, but aid trucks have yet to be permitted to enter Gaza at the full anticipated rate of hundreds per day. Plans have yet to be implemented to open the crossing to Egypt to let some Gazans out, initially to evacuate the wounded for medical treatment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained that the war cannot end until Hamas surrenders its weapons and cedes control of Gaza, a demand the fighters have rejected.
Hamas sources told Reuters on Tuesday the group would tolerate no more violations of order in Gaza and would target collaborators, armed looters and drug dealers.
The group, though greatly weakened after two years of Israeli bombardment and ground incursions, has been gradually reasserting itself since the ceasefire took hold.
It has deployed hundreds of workers to start clearing rubble on routes needed to access damaged or destroyed housing, and to repair broken water pipes. Road clearance and security provision will also be needed for increased aid delivery.
The ceasefire has stopped two years of devastating warfare in Gaza triggered by the October 7, 2023 attack in which Hamas-led gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza killed nearly 68,000 people according to local health authorities, with thousands more feared dead under the rubble. Gaza’s Civil Defence Service said 250 bodies had been recovered since the truce began.
Swathes of Gaza are in ruins and the global hunger monitor said in August there was famine in the territory. Thousands of Gazans have been returning to homes since the ceasefire, many finding whole streets bombed into dust.
—Additional files from Global News and the Associated Press
