Promising that no one would be left behind, the adviser said a program might be established to reward people for helping locate and retrieve the rest of the bodies. Other governments were also helping.
The Israeli military said on Thursday (AEDT) that it had collected two more bodies of hostages from the Red Cross. The bodies of nine of the 28 remaining deceased hostages have been returned.
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Ten bodies were handed over to Israel in total, but one was found not to be a hostage. Forensic tests showed it did not match any of those held in Gaza, and there was no immediate word on who it was.
Hamas said it had returned all the bodies it could find and that retrieving the rest would require “significant efforts and specialised equipment”.
That has caused significant consternation in the Israeli government and among the dead hostages’ families. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s office released a statement on Wednesday (Israel time) threatening to resume fighting and annihilate Hamas if the militant group did not fulfil all aspects of the truce.
“If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in co-ordination with the United States, will resume fighting and act to achieve a total defeat of Hamas, to change the reality in Gaza and achieve all the objectives of the war,” the statement said, as reported by The Times of Israel.
Drone footage of Gaza City.Credit: AP
US President Donald Trump struck a similar tone in a call to CNN, saying Israeli forces would “return to those streets as soon as I say the word” if Hamas did not honour the agreement.
“If Israel could go in and knock the crap out of them, they’d do that,” Trump said, adding that “what’s going on with Hamas – that’ll be straightened out quickly.”
According to Axios, Israeli intelligence shared with the US suggests that Hamas has access to more bodies and has not been doing enough to recover and return them. The Gaza deal could not move into the next phase until that changed, Axios reported, citing two Israeli officials and one US official.
But on the briefing call in Washington, the two senior US advisers said the plan was already moving into its second phase. One adviser said that although the peace plan mandated a demilitarised Gaza, it was “very, very, very hard” to get that done.
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“It’s not realistic to think everyone’s just going to walk in, drop their arms and say, ‘Hey, there you go’,” they said. A lot of Hamas fighters feared retribution from people in Gaza. “It’s a very complex dynamic.”
They also said that while aid would go everywhere, no rebuilding money would go into areas controlled by Hamas. Rebuilding would begin in places that had been “totally cleared”, one person said, citing Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
“No one’s forcing any Gazans to leave. There are Gazans who I think have left because the living conditions are terrible,” one of the senior advisers said.
In exchange for the remaining hostages, Israel freed about 2000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Monday. The deal also requires Israel to return the bodies of 360 Palestinians.
A convoy of Red Cross vehicles transports the bodies of deceased Palestinians held by Israel during the war.Credit: AP
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday that it had received 45 more bodies from Israel, bringing the total to 90. A forensics team examining the remains said they showed signs of mistreatment.
The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with nearly all inhabitants driven from their homes, a global hunger monitor confirming famine and health authorities overwhelmed.
“Our situation is utterly tragic. We went back to our homes in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood and found there are no homes at all. There is no shelter. Nothing,” said Moemen Hassanein in Gaza City, with tents and shanties behind him.
With Reuters, AP
