Hamas handed over the remains of two of the 13 dead hostages it was still holding on Thursday as the latest Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip stoked growing fears that a US-backed ceasefire agreement could collapse.
The Israeli military said it had received the bodies that had been handed over to the Red Cross in central Gaza and that they would be taken for identification. It leaves the remains of 11 hostages still in Gaza.
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli planes and tanks pounded military-controlled areas in eastern Gaza, without causing casualties.
Witnesses told Reuters that Israeli planes carried out 10 air strikes in areas east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while tanks shelled areas east of Gaza city in the north.
The Israeli military said it carried out "precise" strikes against "terrorist infrastructure that posed a threat to the troops" in those areas.
The bombardment came after Israel launched heavy overnight strikes across Gaza on Tuesday in response to the death of soldier in an attack in southern Gaza earlier that day. The Israeli government also accused Hamas of deception by claiming to have returned the remains of one more dead hostage on Monday, which they found belonged to a hostage who had been returned earlier.
Hamas had previously returned the remains of 15 of the 28 dead hostages it was holding, but said it was having difficulty finding the others.
After three weeks of a fragile ceasefire, Palestinians in Gaza are growing increasingly anxious about when they will be allowed to return to their homes and farms in areas still occupied by the Israeli military.
The truce has largely held despite two rounds of deadly bombings by Israel and the delay in Hamas handing over the remains of all hostages. Meanwhile, the Israeli military has withdrawn to the so-called Yellow Line as agreed but still holds the eastern, northernmost and southernmost areas. It is required to pull back further as more provisions of the truce agreement are fulfilled.
For Wisam Qdeih, 36, the ceasefire means little while he remains displaced from his land and home in Khuza’a, a southern town east of Khan Younis, next to the border with Israel.
“Our family’s farmland, about 60 dunums [six hectares], lies beyond the Yellow Line,” the father of three told The National. “It’s all under Israeli control now. The war isn’t over for us until we return to our land and rebuild.”
farmer from eastern Khan Younis
Before the war, Gaza’s farmlands had sustained families with fresh crops all year round. Now, most of them are destroyed and their restoration is being delayed indefinitely, exacerbating the already dire situation in the territory, Mr Qdeih said.
“The division of Gaza is the greatest catastrophe of our lives,” he says. “Before the war, Gaza was small, barely enough for its people. Now even that little space is gone.”
He warned that full-blown hostilities could be renewed in the coming months, with Israel demanding the remaining bodies of hostages while Hamas insists it does not know the location of them all. Meanwhile, the unresolved question of Hamas’s weapons and the international committee meant to oversee the next steps could spark deeper disagreement.
“Our story in this war isn’t over,” Mr Qdeih said. Although the relentless Israeli attacks of the past two years have ceased, "we’re still living other kinds of wars every day – wars of loss, waiting, and survival”, he said.
In Deir Al Balah, central Gaza, Ismail Mousa, 51, originally from Jabalia Camp in northern Gaza, says he feels trapped in a conflict that refuses to end.
“The bombing has stopped, yes,” the father of nine told The National, “but the war on the ground is still here. The army still controls more than half of Gaza and doesn’t allow us near our homes.”
Mr Mousa’s house in Jabalia was reduced to rubble months ago. When Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza were allowed to return during a previous truce that began in January, he pitched a tent on top of the ruins and lived there, a symbolic act of defiance and belonging. But now, even that is impossible.
“This time, I can’t even reach my home, I can’t see what’s left of it," he said. "That alone feels like another war, the war of displacement that never ends.”
Mr Mousa said he doubts the ceasefire can last under current conditions. “As long as the army controls so much of Gaza, there will be no stability. Hamas won’t surrender its weapons or accept Israel’s presence here, not now, not ever.”
Tens of thousands of people from the occupied areas are forced to live in already overcrowded western districts, where their tents and makeshift shelters line the streets. “We’re packed together like never before,” Mr Mousa said. “And winter is coming. I don’t know how people will survive.”
