Cracks in shaky ceasefire as Palestinians killed, aid halted
Source: DW News
Cracks have begun to appear in the historic Gaza peace deal as both sides accuse each other of breaching phase one of the agreement already.
But Israel said on Wednesday it was restricting deliveries of aid into the Gaza strip because Hamas was being too slow to turn over the bodies of dead Israeli hostages.
Aid delivery trucks would be halved from 600 to 300 and Israel would not open the crucial Rafah border crossing with Egypt, Israel said.
Hamas said locating the Israeli bodies was difficult. Four coffins were handed over on Tuesday (AEDT). Shortly after 8am Australian time, the Israel Defence Forces confirmed four more coffins had been delivered.
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.
The Israeli military said it had fired on people who crossed truce lines and approached its forces after ignoring calls to turn back.
Hamas has also been executing men in the street and swiftly reclaiming territory in the Gaza Strip’s urban areas following the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops last week.
In a video circulated late on Monday (local time), 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.
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.
On Tuesday (AEDT) Trump 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.
While Israeli officials had understood there could be some delay in the recovery effort, the families of hostages and their supporters earlier expressed dismay that only four of the 28 bodies had been returned.
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 a 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.
Hamas sources told Reuters on Tuesday 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.
-with AAP/AP
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