DaysofPal – The spokesperson for the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Hazem Qassem, said on Monday that Israel has failed to adhere to the designated ceasefire maps, accusing it of deliberately expanding the “yellow line,” particularly in northern Gaza.
Speaking to the media, Qassem said that Hamas had informed mediators of the pressing need for heavy equipment to be brought in in order to retrieve the bodies of Israeli captives who were still trapped in areas where fighting was still going on.
He added that Israel had backtracked on earlier understandings concerning Hamas fighters in Rafah, following its receipt of the body of Israeli officer Hadar Goldin.
“These developments reflect Israel’s continued violation of signed agreements,” Qassem said, noting that such actions “further complicate humanitarian and field mediation efforts.”
Following the handover of Goldin’s body, the number of Israeli bodies recovered and delivered by Palestinian resistance groups since the Gaza ceasefire took effect on October 10 has risen to 24. Hamas still holds four additional Israeli bodies, according to Qassem.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had earlier on Sunday delivered Goldin’s remains to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The group said in a statement that Goldin’s body had been found on Saturday inside a tunnel route in the Yibna refugee camp in Rafah, southern Gaza.
The developments come amid the broader context of what Palestinian and international observers have described as an Israeli genocide in Gaza, ongoing since October 7, 2023, and carried out with U.S. and European support.
Over 239,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded since the war began, most of them women and children, with more than 11,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and many dying of famine and disease.
Nearly all urban areas in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, as Israel continues to defy international calls and rulings by the International Court of Justice demanding an end to the onslaught.
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