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The ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas is already facing tests as the slower-than-hoped return of dead hostages from Gaza prompted some Israelis to declare a ‘violation’ of the truce agreement.
A day after signing the peace deal, Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that if Hamas don’t disarm, ‘we will disarm them’.
‘And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently,’ he added.
Just yesterday, Trump bragged about how the deal would bring an end to ‘3,000 years’ of conflict in the region.
Today, Israel said it would halve the number of trucks bringing in humanitarian aid into the devastated territory in response to the delayed return of bodies.
Attention has turned to when Hamas will return all the bodies of hostages who died in captivity, after the living hostages were released.
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.
In Gaza, the health ministry said that the bodies of three people killed by the Israeli military in the northern part of the territory were taken to Al Ahli hospital.
The Israeli military said troops there had ‘opened fire to remove the threat’ of several people approaching them and not complying with orders to stop, but they too have been accused of breaking the ceasefire.
Under the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces pulled back to where they were in August, before launching their latest offensive on Gaza City.
The pullback leaves a number of hard-hit Palestinian areas under Israeli control, and Israel has warned residents not to try to return to homes there.
Complex issues remain ahead in the first phase of the ceasefire deal brokered by Trump.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military identified two of the four dead hostages – Guy Illouz from Israel and Bipin Joshi, a student from Nepal.
A third dead hostage, Yossi Sharabi, was identified by Be’er Kibbutz, from where he was taken.
Mr Illouz and Mr Joshi were both in their 20s when Hamas-led militants took them during the October 7, 2023, attack on that ignited the war – Mr Illouz from the Nova music festival and Mr Joshi from Israel’s Kibbutz Alumim.
Israel said Mr Illouz died of his wounds while being held captive without proper medical treatment, while Mr Joshi was murdered in captivity in the first months of the war.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is cautioning that finding and returning the remains of former hostages in Gaza is ‘an even bigger challenge’ than freeing those who were still alive.
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