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The fragile ceasefire in Gaza faced its first test on Tuesday when Israel said the flow of aid into the devastated Palestinian territory would be cut by half and the crucial Rafah border crossing with Egypt would not open as planned, accusing Hamas of breaching the US-brokered agreement by withholding the bodies of Israeli hostages.
On Monday, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 living hostages in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of nearly 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire’s first phase.
Hamas also returned the remains of four dead hostages, but had previously warned that recovering those of another 24 still in Gaza may take longer as not all burial sites have been identified.
But Israeli military officials believe Hamas knows where more of the hostages’ remains are to be found and have deliberately delayed their transfer, Haaretz newspaper reported.
Donald Trump urged Hamas to release the remaining bodies, saying it was necessary to enable the next phase of the Gaza plan.
“A big burden has been lifted, but the job IS NOT DONE. THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED!” Trump posted on social media. “Phase Two begins right NOW!!!”
Early tensions in the ceasefire were widely expected as Hamas and Israel seek to gain advantage during the implementation of the ill-defined 20-point plan proposed by Trump.
But the move to restrict aid and postpone the opening of Rafah – a major crossing point that would allow supplies to enter Gaza from outside Israel – will come as a shock nonetheless. The crossing was due to open on Wednesday in line with the 20-point agreement agreed last week, which called for a surge of aid at levels last seen during the shortlived ceasefire in March.
The ceasefire plan also called for “all hostages, alive and deceased” to be returned within 72 hours of the agreement’s acceptance, but provided a mechanism if that did not happen, saying that Hamas should share information about any remaining deceased hostages and “exert maximum effort to ensure the fulfilment of these commitments as soon as possible”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acknowledged on Tuesday that delays could be expected, describing handing over the remains of all hostages as a “massive challenge” given the difficulties of finding bodies amid the territory’s rubble.
“The search for human remains, it’s obviously [an] even bigger challenge than having … the people alive being released,” Christian Cardon, an ICRC official, said at a news briefing in Geneva.
Ela Haimi, whose husband Tal Haimi, 41, was killed when Hamas attacked Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on 7 October, backed the squeeze on humanitarian aid into Gaza. She said: “I had the information that [Hamas] are not doing everything they can. The Israeli army gave them information and they didn’t use it ... We can control how many trucks go inside the strip. We have things we can do and we have to use it.”
She added that she did not believe the Israeli government should or would move on to “phase two” of the peace plan until all the dead hostages were returned.
After the celebrations on Monday, tensions rose throughout a day of sporadic violence in Gaza.
Israeli forces, which pulled back from Gaza City and some other parts of Gaza on Saturday, opened fire on civilians who approached their positions in two separate incidents, reportedly killing six. Under the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces have pulled back to a so-called “yellow line” but still hold slightly more than half of Gaza.
Mahmud Bassal, spokesperson for the Gaza civil defence agency, said five people were killed by drones as they inspected their homes in the Shujaiya district of Gaza City and another died in a drone strike south-east of Khan Younis city.
The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire after repeated warnings to “suspects” who had been identified as threats after approaching their positions in the first incident and a former Hamas arms cache in the second.
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson, said that the shootings had broken the ceasefire arrangements and Israel was trying to “evade its commitments to the mediators”.
There were further reports of shootings, beatings and firefights across much of Gaza as Hamas continued efforts to reimpose its authority in the territory, sending armed fighters on to the streets and targeting those opposed to its continued rule or aligned with Israel.
In a video circulated late on Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men with hands tied behind their backs into a Gaza City square, forced them to their knees and shot them from behind as dozens of onlookers watched from nearby shopfronts.
Trump has given his blessing to Hamas to reassert some control of Gaza, at least temporarily. Israeli officials, who say any final settlement must permanently disarm Hamas, have not so far commented publicly on the reappearance of the group’s fighters on to the streets.
The delay in opening Rafah dismayed humanitarian officials in Gaza who said only limited supplies had entered since the ceasefire deal was agreed.
The UN said tents for displaced families, frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour and medicines crossed into Gaza on Saturday, but on Monday no trucks had entered from Israel due to the passage of hostages freed in Gaza, while Tuesday was a Jewish religious holiday so crossings were shut.
“We didn’t witness any significant change on the ground. In the north especially, we need services, tents, water, heavy equipment … Everything, basically. We cannot say there is a flood of aid,” said Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network.
On Tuesday, a Gaza hospital said it had received the bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been handed back by Israel, as part of Trump’s plan to end the two-year conflict, which was triggered by a Hamas surprise attack into Israel that killed 1,200, mostly civilians. The ensuing Israeli offensive killed 67,000 and injured more than 170,000.
The agreement signed last week also said Israel would provide information on the remains of Palestinians who died in Israeli custody.
Attention is now focusing on efforts to set up the transitional authority in Gaza and multinational stabilisation force as specified in the deal. Both would be ultimately overseen by a “board of peace” chaired by Trump and possibly led by Tony Blair, the former British prime minister.
Badr Abdelatty, the Egyptian foreign minister, said 15 Palestinian technocrats have been selected to administer Gaza, approved by all Palestinian factions – including Hamas – and vetted by Israel.
“We need to deploy them to take care of the daily life of the people in Gaza, and the board of peace should support and supervise the flow of finance and money, which will come for the reconstruction of Gaza,” he said.
As tens of thousands make their way back to their ruined homes, the full extent of the destruction in Gaza is becoming clear.
Jaco Cilliers, a special representative to the UN Development Programme administrator for a programme to help Palestinians, said on Tuesday that the UN, the EU and the World Bank jointly estimated that the reconstruction of Gaza would cost $70bn.
“The estimated damage and rubble, throughout the whole of Gaza, is in the region of 55 million tons … equal to 13 pyramids in Giza,” he said.
Cilliers said $20bn would be needed in the next three years, and the rest would be needed over a longer period – possibly decades.
