Aid trucks roll into Gaza as Israel says one of bodies returned by Hamas not hostage

Aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel resumed preparations to open the main Rafah crossing after a dispute over the return of the bodies of dead hostages that had threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The Palestinian Authority said it is prepared to operate the key crossing for aid.

"Now we are ready to engage again, and we have notified all parties that we are ready to operate the Rafah crossing," said Mohammad Shtayyeh, special envoy to President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

In May 2024, the Israeli military took control of the Palestinian side of Gaza's southern Rafah crossing, which has been central for the delivery of aid and the exit of injured people during the war.

Food and medical supplies

Subject to Israel's security approval, Gazans who had left the enclave during the war will be allowed back in for the first time and others will be allowed to cross out through the Rafah crossing, Kan reported.

Some 600 trucks carrying mainly food and medical supplies, as well as equipment needed for repairing damaged infrastructure, will be allowed in, Kan said. 

Israel had threatened to keep the Rafah border crossing shut on Tuesday, citing Hamas's failure to meet its obligations under the Gaza ceasefire agreement and hand over bodies of deceased hostages that it was holding.

Hours later Hamas handed four coffins over to Israel through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Three were identified as Israeli hostages but the Israeli army says the fourth body has not been matched to any of the captives, following the completion of an examination at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Israel 'responsible' for delays

A senior Hamas source has told Middle East Eye (MEE) that Israel bears responsibility for delays in locating and returning the bodies of captives still missing in Gaza.

The source told MEE that its negotiators clearly stated during talks that the presence of Israeli forces and the indiscriminate Israeli attacks that caused widespread destruction would complicate the task of locating the bodies of killed captives, requiring greater time and effort.

There are 55 million tonnes of rubble in Gaza and the Israeli army remains in more than half of the territory.

Israeli captives negotiator Gershon Baskin said the difficulty in returning the bodies of the captives is in part because a number of Hamas commanders who buried the bodies of the captives are no longer alive, alongside the destruction of the Gaza Strip.

"Six hundred trucks of humanitarian aid will be dispatched (on Wednesday) to the Gaza Strip by the UN, approved international organizations, the private sector and donor countries," Kan said on its website, without citing sources.

An aid ship called The Goodness has departed from Türkiye’s Mersin port, carrying 900 tons of food and baby formula for people in Gaza, according to the Anadolu agency.

The United Nations declared a famine in Gaza at the end of August. Aid agencies are seeking to rapidly scale up supplies to people in Gaza City, where up to 400,000 people have not received assistance for several weeks, according to the World Food Programme.

From day one of the ceasefire, the number of aid trucks that have been allowed to access Gaza was not the same as what was agreed upon in the truce deal, reported Al Jazeera media network.

The World Food Programme says that 137 aid trucks have been delivered by them to the Strip.

Most of those trucks were loaded with flour and much-needed humanitarian supplies that will ensure the survival of Palestinians at least for three months.

The return of aid is listed in the 20-point plan for Gaza.

Hamas's presence

Another point in the plan is Hamas's disarmament, a demand rejected by the group, which has been the dominant Palestinian faction in Gaza since 2007.

In the north of the territory, as Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City, the Hamas government's black-masked armed police resumed street patrols.

"Our message is clear: There will be no place for outlaws or those who threaten the security of citizens," a Palestinian security source in Gaza told reporters.

Gaza civilians who spoke to journalists broadly welcomed the crackdown and found the presence of Hamas patrols reassuring.

"After the war ended and the police spread out in the streets, we started to feel safe," said 34-year-old Abu Fadi Al-Banna, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.

Hamdiya Shammiya, 40, who was driven from her home in northern Gaza by the fighting to seek shelter in the southern city Khan Yunis, agreed.

"Thank God the war is finally over. We've started to breathe a little," she said.

Meanwhile, Israel and the United States insist Hamas can have no role in a future Gaza government. The plan says that Hamas members who agree to "decommission their weapons" will be given amnesty.

"If they don't disarm, we will disarm them," Trump told reporters at the White House a day after visiting the Middle East. "And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently."

Next stage of ceasefire

Talks have begun on the second stage of the ceasefire, which involves Hamas's governance in Gaza, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, citing sources familiar with the ongoing discussions.

According to Al Jazeera, Israel has denied permission for most doctors who have asked to enter the territory to treat the sick and wounded despite the ceasefire, said Dr Ahmed Mokhallati, a former head of plastic surgery at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

Palestinian Information Center is reporting that drones fly at low altitudes over the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City, while the Israeli military fires artillery shells and gunfire.

Israeli tanks fired at Palestinians in the town of Bani Suheila and the Sheikh Nasser neighborhood, east of Khan Younis, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

The head of the al-Mughayyir village council, Amin Abu Aliya, told the Wafa news agency that soldiers closed the western entrance to the village, preventing Palestinians from entering or leaving.

The western entrance is currently the only one to the village, after troops closed the eastern entrance since the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023.