Amid the efforts of US envoy Steve Witkoff, which were active yesterday on the truce line between Israel, the movement and Hamas, and the latter’s intention to hand over more bodies of Israeli prisoners on Wednesday, Israel backed down from closing the Rafah crossing.
The Israeli public broadcaster (Radio Kan) reported that Israel decided to proceed with opening the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt and allow the transfer of humanitarian aid to the Strip, after returning the remains of four Israeli prisoners yesterday evening, Tuesday.
She also added that Israel canceled measures it intended to take, including reducing the number of aid trucks entering the Strip by half.
4 others in the evening. This step came after a diplomat and a second informed source revealed that Hamas informed the mediators of its intention to hand over the bodies of 4 other Israeli detainees, this evening, according to what the Times of Israel newspaper reported, bringing the number of bodies handed over to Israel to 12.
Last Monday, the movement handed over 4 bodies, while releasing all 20 living Israeli prisoners, knowing that the number of dead detainees was 28, which angered the Israeli side, which accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
However, Hamas confirmed that there is great difficulty in reaching the remains of prisoners, amid the rubble and massive destruction in the devastated Palestinian Strip.
Yesterday evening, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israeli army had received four coffins containing the remains of detainees from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
It is noteworthy that the International Committee of the Red Cross had clarified yesterday that recovering the bodies of some of the dead detainees may take a long time, given that some burial places are unknown. Christian Cardon, spokesman for the committee, said that handing over the remains of detainees and detainees who fell in the war on Gaza would take time, and described the matter as a “tremendous challenge” given the difficulty of finding bodies amid the rubble of Gaza.
Especially since the bloody war on Gaza two years ago destroyed hundreds of buildings and left at least 55 million tons of rubble in the streets and roads, which hinders the search for bodies and also delays reconstruction, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
