DaysofPal – Hamas has handed over the remains of another deceased Israeli captive to the Red Cross, even as Israeli forces carried out fresh drone attacks in southern Gaza that killed two Palestinians, highlighting the fragility of the ceasefire in place since October 10.
The Israeli occupation army confirmed on Monday that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had taken custody of the coffin and was transporting it to Israeli forces stationed inside Gaza.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, Hamas agreed to return the bodies of all 28 deceased captives, in addition to the 20 surviving hostages who were freed on October 13. With Monday’s handover, 16 sets of remains have now been returned to Israel.
The Captives and Missing Families Forum, an association representing the relatives of Israeli captives, urged the government to suspend the ceasefire if Hamas fails to complete the process.
“Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased captives is held,” the group said in a statement. “The families urge the government of Israel, the United States administration, and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfills all of its obligations.”
Hamas, however, says that locating all the bodies remains difficult due to widespread destruction across the Gaza Strip. Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said on Saturday that “the occupation has altered the terrain of Gaza,” making it hard to recover some remains. He added that several individuals who had helped bury the captives were killed during the war, and others could not remember the exact burial sites.
Following al-Hayya’s remarks, Israel allowed an Egyptian technical team to enter Gaza to assist in the search, using excavators and trucks to dig through rubble and debris.
Despite the ceasefire, violence has persisted. On Monday, an Israeli drone strike near Khan Younis killed two Palestinians, according to Nasser Hospital. Over the past 48 hours, eight Palestinians have been killed and 13 wounded in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, the territory’s Ministry of Health said.
The ministry reported that since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 68,527 people and injured 170,395.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended Israel’s recent actions, claiming they did not constitute a ceasefire violation. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Rubio said the drone strike targeted a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group allegedly plotting an imminent attack on Israeli forces. “We don’t view that as a violation of the ceasefire,” he said. “They have the right if there’s an imminent threat to Israel, and all the mediators agree with that.”
Humanitarian organizations are still cautioning that despite the ceasefire, Gaza’s population is still living in appalling conditions. The United Nations says that more than 473,000 displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza, where they face immense destruction and shortages of food, clean water, and shelter.
Younis al-Khatib, head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, said Gaza’s humanitarian crisis extends far beyond infrastructure. “Rebuilding human beings is more difficult than rebuilding destroyed homes,” he told reporters in Oslo after meetings with Norway’s prime minister and foreign minister, emphasizing that the population would require long-term mental health support.
The World Health Organization estimates that the number of Palestinians in need of psychological care in Gaza has more than doubled since the start of the war, from 485,000 to over one million. UNICEF adds that nearly all children in the enclave now require mental health assistance.
“Gaza has been the most dangerous place in the world to be a child for the past two years,” said Tess Ingram, UNICEF’s spokesperson in Gaza. “A classroom of children was killed every single day during this conflict, and the scars of what they’ve endured will last for generations.”
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