Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over two bodies of Israeli hostages on Thursday, a day after the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza was shaken by a series of deadly Israeli attacks on the enclave.
The bodies of hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch were returned to Israel for burial after completing an identification process, the Israeli army said in a statement late on Thursday.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas released all living hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and war detainees, while Israel withdrew its troops, halted its offensive and increased aid to the enclave.
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Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all 28 hostages killed in exchange for 360 Palestinian militants killed in the war. As of this Thursday, 15 bodies had been delivered by the group.
Israel says Hamas has been too slow to hand over the remaining bodies of hostages still in Gaza. Hamas argues that it will take time to locate and recover all the remains.
The families of some of the hostages are desperate to give their loved ones a proper burial and fear their remains will be lost forever under the ruins of Gaza.
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Thousands of Palestinians believed dead are still missing amid the vast destruction.
The dispute over the recovery and delivery of the bodies of the hostages has been one of the difficulties complicating US President Donald Trump’s plan to definitively end the Gaza war.
Several considerable obstacles still lie ahead, including the future administration of Gaza and the demand for Hamas to disarm. At the same time, both sides are exchanging accusations for violating the truce.
From Tuesday to Wednesday, Israel retaliated for a Palestinian attack on its troops, which left a soldier dead, with bombings that, according to Gaza health authorities, killed 104 people.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 46 children and 20 women were among the 104 people killed in the airstrikes. Israel said its strikes targeted dozens of militants.
Witnesses reported that Israeli planes carried out 10 airstrikes on areas east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, while tanks shelled areas east of Gaza City in the north before dawn on Thursday. There were no records of victims.
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The Israeli army said it carried out “precise” strikes against “terrorist infrastructure that posed a threat to troops” in areas of Gaza where its forces are still deployed.
Gaza residents fear a resumption of hostilities.
“We are afraid that another war will break out, because we don’t want a war. We have suffered two years of displacement. We don’t know where to go or where to come from,” said a displaced man, Fathi Al-Najjar, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
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At the tent camp where Najjar spoke, girls and boys filled plastic bottles with water from metal containers placed on the side of the street, and women cooked food for families using wood-fired clay ovens.
The war has displaced most of Gaza’s more than two million inhabitants, some of them multiple times. Many have not yet returned to their areas, fearing that they may soon be displaced again.
