Journalism of Courage
Amid growing fears of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza falling apart over Hamas’s failure to return the bodies of all the 28 hostages who died in their captivity, the militants have informed mediators that they will be transferring the remains of four more deceased Israeli captives.
According to Reuters, the bodies are expected to be handed over to Israeli authorities at 10 pm local time. With this, the number of deceased hostages to be repatriated will go up to eight. On Monday, Hamas returned the remains of four slain hostages, including Bipin Joshi, the only non-Israeli who was abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023. According to Israeli authorities, Joshi was murdered in captivity in the first months of the war.
As part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, Hamas had agreed to release all 20 living hostages and return the remains of the 28 others who died while in captivity within 72 hours of the agreement’s acceptance.
But it also provided a mechanism if that didn’t happen, saying Hamas should share information about any remaining deceased hostages and “exert maximum effort to ensure the fulfillment of these commitments as soon as possible.”
Hamas and the International Committee of the Red Cross have said that, because of the widespread destruction in Gaza, recovering the hostages’ bodies is a big challenge.
However, in Israel, some officials believe Hamas was not sincere in upholding its part of the deal and was withholding the bodies of some slain hostages.
The failure of Hamas to return the bodies has also angered the families of the hostages, with some even calling for Israel to withdraw from the ceasefire deal.
The Hostages Family Forum, a grassroots organization representing many of the hostage families, called it a “blatant violation of the agreement by Hamas.”
Earlier, Israeli officials said the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would stay closed at least through tomorrow, and the flow of aid into the Palestinian enclave would be reduced to put pressure on the terror group to hand over the bodies of the hostages it is holding.
An Israeli military agency on Tuesday declared Hamas’s failure to return of deceased hostages as a “violation” of the truce agreement and announced that it would respond by halving the number of trucks allowed to bring humanitarian aid into the devastated territory.
The United Nations’ humanitarian office in Gaza received word of the cuts from the Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, according to spokesperson Olga Cherevko.
