Declaration comes at a time when there is an impasse over the return of the hostages’ remains
DANIELA ARCANJO – Five days after a ceasefire agreement halted the two-year war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the country’s military to prepare a plan to “defeat Hamas” if fighting resumes, according to a statement from his office this Wednesday (15).
The statement comes at a time when there is a While the terrorist group says it complied with the agreement and did everything possible to find them amid the rubble, Israeli intelligence told the US that the faction was not doing enough, according to the American portal Axios.
Washington, in turn, denied that Hamas had violated the agreement and renewed promises that no hostages would be left behind.
On Monday (13), Hamas had returned the last 20 hostages alive and the bodies of four others among the 251 kidnapped in the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023. Then, however, Tel Aviv suspended the reopening of the Gaza border, which is experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis due to the blockade of the Jewish State, and threatened to reduce the shipment of supplies, accusing Hamas of not fulfilling its part of the agreement truce and delay the delivery of the remains.
After Israeli pressure, the criminal faction returned four more bodies in the early hours of Wednesday, but only three are dead hostages, according to Tel Aviv. One of them, according to the Armed Forces, is a Palestinian, and the others were identified as Tamir Nimrodi, 18, Uriel Baruch, 35, and Eitan Levy, 53.
Late Wednesday, the Israeli army said it received two more coffins delivered by Hamas to the Red Cross at a meeting point in the northern Gaza Strip, and the bodies were being taken for forensic identification.
Israel, in turn, handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians to authorities in Gaza, increasing the total number of remains returned since the beginning of the week to 90, according to the local Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas. The exchange is part of the ceasefire agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump, which provides for the delivery of 15 Palestinian bodies for each dead Israeli returned by the group.
Before the delivery of the last two coffins, 21 bodies remained in Gaza amid the war of versions. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had stated on Tuesday (14) that it would take time to deliver the remains due to the difficulties of locating them among the rubble. According to Axios, however, Tel Aviv claims that it cannot move to the next phase of the ceasefire until the situation changes.
Trump backed Israel by saying in a brief interview with CNN that he would consider allowing Israeli forces to resume fighting in Gaza if Hamas did not live up to its side of the deal. “Israel will return to those streets as soon as I give the word. If Israel could come in and finish them off, they would,” said the Republican.
He had been asked about the disarmament of Hamas, which in recent days has been causing scenes of violence on the streets of Gaza. With Israel’s withdrawal from 47% of the territory, internal conflicts between the faction and other armed groups operating in the Palestinian territory emerged, repeating the scenes of violence from the region in the last two years of war.
One of the most brutal was released by Hamas TV on Telegram and shows the murder of seven people on a street in Gaza City. This Wednesday, Germany, the USA and France condemned the violence, as did the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the West Bank and classified the act as a “crime and flagrant violation of human rights”.
The group’s advance shows the difficulties of maintaining the ceasefire. The next phase would require Hamas to hand over its weapons, something the terrorist group refuses to do unless it guarantees the creation of a Palestinian state.
Amid tension, civilians in Gaza await help as they face a serious humanitarian crisis. In two years of bombing, almost all 2.2 million Palestinians were expelled from their homes, and the scenario of extreme hunger did not change with the signing of the agreement.
On Wednesday, humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza, and videos from the Reuters news agency showed trucks moving from the Egyptian side of the border to the Rafah crossing, some carrying fuel and others loaded with pallets of aid.
However, it was unclear whether that convoy would complete its crossing into Gaza as part of the 600 trucks expected to enter the territory on Wednesday – the daily number required by the ceasefire plan but not enough to meet the scale of the need, according to United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher.
Israel’s Minister of National Security, the extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, criticized the delivery of aid in a post on the social network X. “No more dishonor,” he said. “Nazi terrorism understands only force,” he wrote, critical of the ceasefire.
