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Israel’s defence minister threatened Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas does not honour the terms of a US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza.
The statement from Defence Minister Israel Katz’s office came after Hamas handed over the remains of two more deceased hostages, and said it would be unable to retrieve any more bodies from the ruins of Gaza without specialised equipment.
Since Monday, under a ceasefire agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump, the Palestinian Islamist group has handed back 20 surviving hostages to Israel in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
Before the two bodies were handed over late on Wednesday, Hamas had already returned the remains of seven of 28 known deceased hostages — along with an eighth body which Israel said was not that of a former hostage.
“If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in coordination 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,” a statement from Katz’s office said.
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Hamas’s armed wing said the two bodies returned would be the last for now — falling far short of the plan’s demand to hand over all of them.
“The Resistance has fulfilled its commitment to the agreement by handing over all living Israeli prisoners in its custody, as well as the corpses it could access,” the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement on social media.
“As for the remaining corpses, it requires extensive efforts and special equipment for their retrieval and extraction. We are exerting great effort in order to close this file.”
But senior US advisors said Wednesday, after Israel’s threat to resume fighting, that Hamas still intends to make good on its pledge.
“We continue to hear from them that they intend to honor the deal. They want to see the deal completed in that regard,” one advisor told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Still, any delay in returning the remaining bodies is likely to pile further domestic pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tie humanitarian aid to the fate of the bodies.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has threatened to cut off desperately needed aid supplies to Gaza if Hamas fails to return the remains of soldiers still held in the Palestinian territory.
– Humanitarian risk –
Israel, meanwhile, transferred another 45 Palestinian bodies that had been in its custody to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, bringing the number returned 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.
With the deal underway, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher urged Israel to immediately open all crossings into Gaza for humanitarian aid.
“It should happen now. We want it to happen immediately as part of this agreement,” Fletcher told AFP in an interview in Cairo on Wednesday, ahead of a planned trip to the Gaza border.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN had reported that the Rafah crossing point to Egypt would reopen, but this did not happen, and an Israeli spokesperson did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, is expected to head to the Rafah crossing on Thursday.
It is the only border point that connects Gaza to the world without passing through Israel.
“The test is that we have children fed, that we have anaesthetics in the hospitals for people getting treatment, that we have tents over people’s heads,” Fletcher said.
– Possible violations –
Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas, said Israeli fire killed three Palestinians on Wednesday, including two while trying to reach their homes in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The Israeli military said that “several suspects were identified crossing the yellow line and approaching” troops in the northern Gaza Strip, referencing the line to which Israeli forces have pulled back to under the ceasefire deal.
The military said this “violates the agreement” and that “troops removed the threat by striking the suspects.”
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 accept.
Hamas is tightening its grip on Gaza’s ruined cities, but Israel and the United States insist the group can have no role in a future government for the territory.
