Israel has delayed aid into the Gaza Strip and kept the enclave’s border shut while re-emergent Hamas fighters demonstrated their grip by executing men in the street, darkening the outlook for US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
Three Israeli officials said Israel had decided to restrict aid into the enclave and delay plans to open the crucial Rafah border crossing to Egypt at least through Wednesday because Hamas had been too slow to turn over bodies of dead hostages.
The militant group has said locating the bodies is difficult.
Meanwhile, Hamas has swiftly reclaimed the streets of the Gaza Strip’s urban areas following the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops last week.
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.
A Hamas source confirmed that the video was filmed on Monday and that Hamas fighters participated in the executions.
Trump has given his blessing to Hamas to reassert some control of the strip, at least temporarily.
Israeli officials, who say any final settlement must permanently disarm Hamas, have so far refrained from commenting publicly on the re-emergence of the group’s fighters.
Only four bodies returned to Israel
On Monday the US president proclaimed the “historic dawn of a new Middle East” to Israel’s parliament as Israel and Hamas were exchanging the last 20 living Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip for nearly 2000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners.
But so far, Hamas has handed over only four coffins of dead hostages, leaving at least 23 presumed dead and one unaccounted for, still in the enclave.
Hamas informed mediators that it will begin transferring a further four bodies to Israel later on Tuesday, an official involved in the operation told media.
While Israeli officials had understood there could be some delay in the recovery effort, the families of hostages and their supporters expressed dismay that only four of the 28 bodies were returned on Monday.
Buses carrying Palestinians released from Israeli prisons arrive outside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on Monday. Source: NurPhoto, Getty / Majdi Fathi
The Hostages Family Forum, a grassroots organisation representing many of the hostage families, called it a “blatant violation of the agreement by Hamas”.
The top official in Israel co-ordinating the return of hostages and the missing, Gal Hirsch, told the families in a note that pressure was being applied on Hamas through international mediators to expedite the process.
Aid trucks have yet to be permitted to enter the Gaza Strip at the full anticipated rate of hundreds per day and plans have yet to be implemented to open the crossing to Egypt to let some Gazans out, initially to relocate the wounded for medical treatment.
Gazan residents said Hamas fighters were increasingly visible on Tuesday, deploying along routes needed for aid deliveries.
Palestinian security sources said dozens of people had been killed in clashes between Hamas fighters and rivals in recent days.
Meanwhile, Israeli drone fire killed five people as they went to check on houses in a suburb east of Gaza City and an air strike killed one person and injured another near Khan Younis, Gazan health authorities said.
Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire.
The Israeli military said it had fired on people who crossed truce lines and approached its forces after ignoring calls to turn back.
Hamas sources on Tuesday said the group would tolerate no more violations of order and would target collaborators, armed looters and drug dealers.
The group, though greatly weakened after two years of pummelling Israeli bombardment and ground incursions, has been gradually reasserting itself since the ceasefire took hold.
It has deployed hundreds of workers to start rubble clearing on key routes needed to access damaged or destroyed housing and to repair broken water pipes.
UNICEF spokeswoman Tess Ingram said that while aid was getting in with tents, tarpaulin sheets, winter clothes, family hygiene kits and other critical items, she hoped for a significant increase later this week.
