Hamas handed over two bodies it said were of deceased Israeli hostages on Thursday, a day after the tenuous Gaza ceasefire was shaken by a series of Israeli strikes which killed dozens of Palestinians, including many women and children, in the war-ravaged territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israeli forces received the two bodies via the Red Cross in Gaza and will be transported into Israel for identification.
Under the ceasefire accord, Hamas released the remaining 20 living hostages held in Gaza in return for the release of nearly 250 Palestinians that Israel convicted or suspected of security crimes, as well as 1,700 adults and 22 minors that it detained during the war and held without charges.
Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all 28 dead hostages in exchange for 360 militants that Israeli forces killed in the war. Up to Thursday Hamas had handed over 15 bodies.
Israel says Hamas has been too slow to hand over the remaining bodies, but the militant group says it will take time to locate and retrieve all of the remains.
Families of some of the hostages are desperate to provide a proper burial for their loved ones and fear their remains will be lost forever beneath the ruins of Gaza.
Thousands of Palestinians believed to be dead are still missing amid the vast destruction.
The CBC’s Crystal Goomansingh crossed into northern Gaza as part of an embed with the Israel Defence Forces. Here’s what she saw from the outskirts of Gaza City, behind the yellow line — the boundary to which Israeli forces agreed to retreat under the ceasefire plan with Hamas.
The dispute over the recovery and handover of bodies has been one of the difficulties complicating U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war for good.
Numerous major obstacles still lie ahead, including the future administration of Gaza and the demand for Hamas to disarm. At the same time, both sides have been trading blame for violating the truce.
Witnesses say Israeli planes carried out 10 airstrikes in areas east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, while tanks shelled areas east of Gaza City in the north before dawn on Thursday.
No casualties were reported.
The Israeli military said it carried out “precise” strikes against “terrorist infrastructure that posed a threat to the troops” in the areas of Gaza where its forces are still deployed.
From Tuesday into Wednesday, Israel struck Gaza in retaliation for an attack on its troops which left one soldier dead.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 46 children and 20 women were among the 104 people killed in the airstrikes. Israel said its strikes had targeted dozens of militants.
Gaza residents say they fear a resumption of hostilities.
“We’re scared that another war will break out, because we don’t want a war. We’ve suffered two years of displacement. We don’t know where to go or where to come,” said Fathi Al-Najjar, a displaced man in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
At the tent encampment where Najjar spoke, girls and boys were filling plastic bottles with water from metal containers placed on the side of the street, and women cooked food for their families using clay firewood ovens.
The war has displaced most of Gaza’s more than two million people, some of them several times. Many haven’t yet returned to their homes, fearing they could soon be displaced again.
Israeli planes launched strikes on Gaza City after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the militant group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
