Israel has restricted aid and called for borders to be closed until at least Wednesday.
Israel releases about 2,000 Palestinians in Gaza ceasefire agreement
Israel has released around 2,000 Palestinians, including minors and bodies of militants, after Hamas released 20 living hostages under the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
CAIRO/JERUSALEM – Hamas handed over more dead hostages on Tuesday after Israel threatened to cut aid to Gaza and President Donald Trump threatened violence if Palestinian militants do not disarm.
A day after President Trump spoke in Jerusalem touting a plan to end the war, reemerging Hamas fighters executed a man in the street, and Israel told the United Nations it would only allow half the number of people per day agreed to in last week’s cease-fire deal.
Israeli officials said Israel decided to limit aid and delay plans to open southern border crossings to Egypt after Hamas violated a cease-fire agreement by failing to hand over the bodies of hostages who died after being captured in Israel’s October 2023 invasion.
Hours later, Hamas informed intermediaries that the four bodies would be transferred to Israel starting at 3pm ET, a person involved in the operation told Reuters.
Later, the Israeli military announced that the Red Cross had received four coffins from Hamas and was on its way to hand over the remains to the Israeli military. Two years of Israeli attacks have left much of the enclave in ruins. Hamas said on Tuesday that Israel was killing people in the Gaza Strip and violating the ceasefire. President Trump has suggested that Hamas is reneging on its promise to return the dead and threatened the group with violence.
“If they don’t disarm, we will disarm,” Trump told reporters in Washington after returning from a weekend trip to the Middle East. “And it’s going to happen quickly and probably violently.”
President Trump and Middle East leaders sign Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement
President Donald Trump signs an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire agreement as aid flows into Gaza, freeing hostages and prisoners.
Hamas, which occupied Gaza in a brief civil war in 2007, quickly reclaimed streets in urban Gaza following the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces last week.
In a video circulating late Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men with their hands tied behind their backs into a Gaza City square, forced them to their knees and shot them in the back as dozens of onlookers watched from nearby storefronts.
Hamas officials confirmed that the video was shot on Monday and that Hamas fighters took part in the execution. Reuters was able to confirm the location from visible geographical features.
Delay in handing over hostage bodies
President Trump previously gave Hamas his blessing to reassert some control over Gaza, at least temporarily. Israeli authorities have so far declined to comment publicly on the re-emergence of the group’s fighters.
On Monday, President Trump proclaimed “a new historical dawn for the Middle East” in Israel’s parliament, as Israel and Hamas exchanged 20 of the last surviving Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip and approximately 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners of war.
Before the latest hostage bodies were handed over to the Red Cross, Hamas handed over four coffins of dead hostages, leaving at least 23 people dead and one person missing in the Gaza Strip.
Obstacles to lasting peace
Gaza residents said they saw more Hamas fighters on Tuesday, deploying them along routes needed to deliver aid. Palestinian security officials say dozens of people have been killed in clashes between Hamas fighters and rival forces in recent days.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed five Palestinians and injured another, while Israel used a drone to check homes on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City, Gaza health authorities announced.
Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire. The Israeli military said it opened fire on people who ignored calls to turn back and crossed the cease-fire line to approach Israeli forces.
On Monday, a summit he co-hosted with President Trump in Egypt ended without announcing any major progress toward establishing an international military force or a new governing body for Gaza.
Aid trucks, which were expected to arrive in the hundreds per day, have not yet been allowed to enter Gaza City and its surrounding areas, where hunger afflicts more than 500,000 Palestinians. Plans to open the border to Egypt to allow some Gazans to escape have not yet been implemented, and were initially intended to evacuate the injured for treatment.
Hamas asserts control
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the war will not end until Hamas lays down its arms and cedes control of Gaza, a demand the fighters reject.
Hamas officials told Reuters on Tuesday that the group would not tolerate further violations of order in the Gaza Strip and would target collaborators, armed looters and drug traffickers.
The group was severely weakened by two years of Israeli shelling and ground incursions, but has been gradually re-establishing itself since the ceasefire took hold. The company sent hundreds of workers to begin clearing debris along routes needed to access damaged or destroyed homes and repair broken water pipes. Road clearance and safety measures will also be needed to increase aid delivery.
The ceasefire halted two years of devastating war in Gaza that began with an Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to an Israeli tally.
Israeli forces have killed at least 67,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials, and thousands more are feared to have died after being trapped under rubble. The Gaza Civil Defense Authority said 250 bodies had been recovered since the start of the ceasefire.
