The day so far
Donald Trump said he would consider allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to resume military action in Gaza if Hamas refuses to uphold its end of the ceasefire deal, telling CNN that Israeli forces could return to the streets “as soon as I say the word”. “What’s going on with Hamas - that’ll be straightened out quickly,” the US president said in a telephone call. Asked what happens if Hamas refuses to disarm, Trump said he’d “think about it”. “Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word,” he said. “If Israel could go in and knock the crap of them, they’d do that.” He added of the IDF and the Netanyahu administration: “I had to hold them back. I had it out with Bibi.”
It comes as Hamas handed over the bodies of another two hostages on Wednesday night but the ceasefire remains fragile amid amid growing tensions over the perceived slow return of the bodies still inside Gaza. The Red Cross confirmed receipt of the two coffins, and the IDF and Hamas both separately confirmed the transfer had taken place. It followed the return of three bodies to Israel by Hamas overnight. They were named as Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levi - but Israel said a fourth body was not one of the hostages. Their funerals are being held in Israel.
With that, Hamas said it had handed over all the remains it was able to reach, and said it would need extensive efforts and special equipment to find and recover the remaining bodies among the ruins of Gaza. Per the ceasefire agreement, the deadline for all the living and dead hostages to be handed over expired on Monday. Hamas had previously indicated that locating some of the remains would be difficult and take longer as not all burial sites are known, locating and accessing them is difficult amid the sea of rubble, and some bodies may be in areas it no longer controls. The Red Cross has also said the task represents a “massive challenge” that could take days or weeks - and that there was a possibility some may never be found. US vice-president JD Vance also acknowledged on Sunday that the difficulties meant some of the bodies might never be recovered.
On that, Israel has reportedly shared intelligence with the US claiming that Hamas has access to more bodies than it claims. Citing two Israeli officials and one US official, Axios reported that Israel told the US Hamas was not doing enough to recover the bodies of the remaining dead Israeli hostages, and that the Gaza deal cannot move into the next phase until that changes. Per Axios’s report: “Both Israeli and US officials close to the process are concerned that elements within the Netanyahu government - particularly ultranationalist ministers Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir - will use the issue of hostage remains to undermine the deal (which they oppose) and push for the resumption of the war.” “Hamas will give all the bodies back, but it is going to take time. We will continue working on it but we can’t allow the deal to collapse,” a US official told Axios.
But Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz has instructed the military to prepare a comprehensive plan to “defeat Hamas” in Gaza if the war is renewed, a statement from his office read. The plan would apply if Hamas “refuses to implement President Trump’s plan, and it becomes necessary to resume fighting”, according to the statement.
Indeed, the Israeli government earlier said there would be no compromises on the return of dead hostages, and would “spare no effort until our fallen hostages return”. It has threatened to halt the opening of the Rafah crossing on Thursday to continue to restrict desperately needed humanitarian aid entering Gaza, actions which have been criticised as “outrageous” by aid agencies. As trucks loaded up with aid lined up on the Egyptian side on Wednesday, the key crossing remained closed.
Aid agencies warned the humanitarian situation on the ground remains at crisis point despite being days into the ceasefire. Unicef said it is still waiting for aid deliveries to surge and Tom Fletcher, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and its top emergency relief coordinator, told AFP that what had entered so far was just “a fraction of what’’s needed”. He told Reuters that thousands of humanitarian vehicles must enter weekly to avert further catastrophe. “We have 190,000 metric tons of provisions on the borders waiting to go in and we’re determined to deliver. That’s essential life-saving food and nutrition,” he said.
Israel returned the bodies of 45 Palestinians and work to identify them is underway in Gaza. It takes the total to 90 so far. The BBC reported that footage filmed at Nasser hospital’s mortuary appeared to show the body of a blindfolded man, while another body appeared to have marks around the wrists and ankles. Israel has previously rejected accusations of widespread ill-treatment and torture of detainees
A senior US military leader called on Hamas to stop violence against civilians and to “disarm without delay”, as the militant group reasserts itself by deploying security forces and executing those it deems collaborators with Israel. It represents slightly mixed messaging from the US after Donald Trump appeared to give Hamas the green light to temporarily police Gaza. He told reporters on Tuesday that Hamas had killed “a number of gang members” which he said did not bother him. On Wednesday Trump admitted that it could be innocent civilians too, saying “it could be gangs plus”.
The US military will not be needed to disarm Hamas militants, Donald Trump has just told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that the US would support Israel in the effort.
He reiterated that the US wants Hamas to give up their weapons as part of the Gaza deal reached last week.
Israeli intelligence shared with US claims Hamas has access to more bodies - report
Israel has shared intelligence with the US claiming that Hamas has access to more bodies than it claims, Axios is reporting.
Citing two Israeli officials and one US official, Axios reports that Israel told the US Hamas was not doing enough to recover the bodies of the remaining dead Israeli hostages, and that the Gaza deal cannot move into the next phase until that changes.
Per Axios’s report: “Both Israeli and US officials close to the process are concerned that elements within the Netanyahu government - particularly ultranationalist ministers Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir - will use the issue of hostage remains to undermine the deal (which they oppose) and push for the resumption of the war.”
“Hamas will give all the bodies back, but it is going to take time. We will continue working on it but we can’t allow the deal to collapse,” a US official told the outlet.
Earlier, we reported that Hamas had said it had now passed on all the bodies it could reach, and needs extra equipment to return the remaining deceased hostages.
Updated
Netanyahu says bodies of hostages now with Israeli military
Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that the Israeli military has received the bodies of two hostages, which were earlier been handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas in Gaza.
The remains will be taken to a specialist centre in Israel for formal identification.
“All the families of the hostages have been updated on the matter, and in this difficult hour, our hearts are with them,” the Israeli PM said. “The effort to bring back our hostages continues relentlessly and will not stop until the last hostage is returned.”
Israel's defense minister instructs military to prepare plan to defeat Hamas if fighting is renewed
Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz has instructed the military to prepare a comprehensive plan to “defeat Hamas” in Gaza if the war is renewed, a statement from his office read.
Katz made the order today during a meeting with military leaders. The plan would apply if Hamas “refuses to implement President Trump’s plan, and it becomes necessary to resume fighting”, according to the statement. It goes on:
Under Trump’s plan, Hamas must return all the fallen hostages in its possession, and disarm, while Israel, together with the international force led by the US, will act to destroy all tunnels and terror infrastructure in Gaza to ensure that Gaza is demilitarized [and does not pose] any threat to the State of Israel.
Israel would otherwise resume the fighting, which it has to pause under the ceasefire agreement currently in place, it said.
Updated
Two coffins of deceased hostages handed over to Red Cross
The Red Cross has received two coffins with deceased hostages, the Israeli military has confirmed. The coffins are on their way to IDF and ISA forces in Gaza.
In a separate statement, Hamas’ military wing confirmed it had handed over the bodies of two Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza City.
Updated
In that call with CNN, Trump repeated his view that Hamas is “going in and clearing out the gangs, violent gangs” in Gaza.
“I’m doing research on it,” he said when asked if it were possible that Hamas was executing innocent Palestinians.
“We’ll find out about it. It could be gangs plus,” he said.
Trump warns Israel could resume fighting 'as soon as I say the word' if Hamas don't uphold deal
Donald Trump has told CNN he would consider allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to resume military action in Gaza if Hamas refuses to uphold its end of the ceasefire deal, saying Israeli forces could return to the streets “as soon as I say the word”.
“What’s going on with Hamas - that’ll be straightened out quickly,” the US president said in a telephone call.
Asked what happens if Hamas refuses to disarm, Trump said he’d “think about it”.
“Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word,” he said. “If Israel could go in and knock the crap of them, they’d do that.”
“I had to hold them back,” he said of the IDF and the Netanyahu administration. “I had it out with Bibi.”
Updated
Hamas says it has returned all the hostage bodies it can reach
Hamas’ armed wing has said it has returned all the bodies of deceased hostages it was able to recover so far, and that the remaining bodies will require extensive efforts and special equipment to find and recover from the ruins of Gaza.
The group said it was committed to what was agreed upon in the ceasefire deal and said it was “exerting great effort” to close the file. In a statement on social media, it said:
The Resistance has fulfilled its commitment to the agreement by handing over all living Israeli prisoners in its custody, as well as the corpses it could access.
As for the remaining corpses, it requires extensive efforts and special equipment for their retrieval and extraction. We are exerting great effort in order to close this file.
Updated
Red Cross on its way to Gaza to receive 'several' more deceased hostages, says IDF
The Israeli military has said the Red Cross is on its way to Gaza to receive the bodies of “several” dead hostages.
It did not provide a breakdown on the number of hostages the Red Cross is set to receive but Hamas earlier said it would hand over two bodies.
Updated
AFP has the statement from the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades. It says that as part of the hostage-prisoner exchange, “the Al-Qassam Brigades have decided to hand over the bodies of two occupation prisoners in the Gaza Strip at 10pm” local time.
Two more bodies of Israeli hostages will be returned tonight, says Hamas
Further to my last post, Hamas’ armed wing has said it has decided to hand over the bodies of two deceased hostages in Gaza at 10pm local time tonight, Reuters is reporting. I’ll bring you more on this as we get it.
Updated
Four to five deceased hostages are expected to be returned to Israel from Gaza this evening, a source familiar with the matter has told CNN.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas was supposed to return all of the living and deceased hostages within the first 72 hours, though the group has indicated that locating some of the remains amid the rubble of Gaza will take longer.
So far, seven of the remaining 28 deceased hostages have been returned (the number was eight but Israel has since said one of the bodies was not one of the hostages).
Updated
Gaza needs massive boost in emergency aid after ceasefire, UN relief chief says
The United Nations is seeking a dramatic boost in humanitarian aid for Gaza, saying the hundreds of relief trucks cleared to enter the devastated enclave under a ceasefire were nowhere near the thousands needed to ease a humanitarian disaster.
Tom Fletcher, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and its top emergency relief coordinator, told Reuters in an interview that thousands of humanitarian vehicles must enter weekly to avert further catastrophe.
“We have 190,000 metric tons of provisions on the borders waiting to go in and we’re determined to deliver. That’s essential life-saving food and nutrition,” Fletcher said.
Israel’s two-year air and ground war against Palestinian militant group Hamas drove almost all Gaza’s 2.2 million people from their homes, and famine is present in the north, global monitors say.
Trucks carrying food aid and fuel, accompanied by a United Nations team, passed through the Kerem Shalom border crossing and arrive in the city of Khan Yunis, Gaza, earlier today.
Dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed after fresh clashes broke out along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and Islamabad carried out retaliatory airstrikes on the Afghan capital, Kabul, and Kandahar province.
The two sides declared a ceasefire by Wednesday night after the latest outbreak of violence, which came after the deadliest cross-border clashes in years over the weekend.
Both countries accused the other of sparking the violence. Pakistan’s military said the Afghan Taliban had carried out “unprovoked fire” on major border posts close to the Kurram district and the crossing between the Chaman and Spin Boldak districts on Tuesday evening. It said it had retaliated with mortar fire and drone strikes, killing 20 Taliban fighters.
Pakistani security sources confirmed that the air force had also carried out strikes on headquarters of Taliban forces in Kandahar province, where the cross-firing reportedly began, and on targets in Kabul.
Images showed the “friendship gate” at the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing had sustained significant damage in the attacks, and it remained closed for the day. Hundreds of people fled Pakistani border villages overnight and local residents reported cross-border firing, strikes and drone deployment that lasted into the evening. In Kandahar province, residents said many people along the border areas had also been fleeing.
The Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, travelled to Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Vladimir Putin, marking their first meeting since the fall of the Kremlin ally Bashar al-Assad and his subsequent exile in Russia.
The talks underscored Moscow’s efforts to safeguard its military foothold in Syria and forge relations with the new rulers in Damascus, with both sides taking a pragmatic approach despite having been enemies only a year ago.
The meeting is notable given that Sharaa, a former jihadist, led the successful rebellion against the Moscow-backed Assad regime last year, in which his rebel forces briefly came under fire from Russian jets before Moscow withdrew its support for the Assad family.
Speaking in the Kremlin, Sharaa said his government respected all previously signed agreements between Damascus and Moscow, indicating that Russia would be allowed to retain its military bases in Syria, though the exact scale of their presence remains unclear.
Sharaa’s visit comes after Moscow was forced to postpone a long-planned summit with Arab leaders after a series of cancellations by regional heavyweights preoccupied with Gaza peace talks.
In his remarks, Putin said Russia had “always based its relations with Syria on the interests of the Syrian people”, adding that the relationship “has always been exclusively friendly”.
A top US military official in the Middle East has urged Hamas “to stop shooting Palestinian civilians”.
This came after reports that the group’s fighters clashed with armed parties and killed alleged gangsters in what it described as an effort to restore law and order.
“We strongly urge Hamas to immediately suspend violence and shooting innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza — in both Hamas-held parts of Gaza and those secured by the IDF behind the Yellow Line,” said Admiral Brad Cooper of the United States Central Command, referring to the initial ceasefire line dividing zones of control in Gaza. He used an acronym of the Israeli military.
The call came a day after president Donald Trump said the clashes left him unbothered and did not affect the agreement that could pave the way for Hamas’ disarmament.
The only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is expected to open to allow hundreds of trucks carrying desperately needed aid into the devastated Palestinian territory.
Aid agencies said on Wednesday they were hoping for an increase in humanitarian assistance, especially to the north of Gaza, to where more than 300,000 displaced people have returned in recent days.
Thousands of tonnes of aid, including food and medical supplies, has been loaded on to trucks waiting in Egypt or stockpiled elsewhere in the region, humanitarian officials said.
At least 400 trucks carrying aid were heading for Gaza, the Egyptian Red Crescent said on Wednesday afternoon, but it was unclear how long it would take for the convoys to complete border formalities and enter the territory.
Summary of the day so far
It is 5pm in Gaza and Israel. Here is a summary of some of the key events reported on the blog so far today:
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of the ceasefire deal is not that of one of the hostages who was held in Gaza. Four bodies were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday to ease pressure on the fragile ceasefire, after the first four on Monday – when the last 20 living hostages were released.
The families of former Gaza hostages Ouriel Baruch, Eitan Levy and Tamir Nimrodi, posted statements on social media after Israel’s forensic research laboratory confirmed the identities. Baruch was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Nimrodi, who had been serving with the Israeli defence body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, was taken by militants from the Erez border crossing. Levy was kidnapped while driving a friend to kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas attack.
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 ceasefire deal with Hamas. Cogat declined to comment on the number of trucks expected to enter Gaza on Wednesday. Israel had threatened to keep Rafah shut and reduce aid supplies because Hamas was returning bodies too slowly.
Israel’s far-right security minister called for a total halt on humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Speaking on Tuesday, Itamar Ben Gvir, who is a security minister despite having been convicted in 2007 of racist incitement and supporting groups on terrorism blacklists, said Hamas was “playing games”.
Forensic authorities in Gaza have started the identification process of 45 bodies of Palestinians that Israel released on Tuesday as part of the ceasefire deal, according to the health ministry. Israel is expected to transfer more bodies, though the total number has not been announced.
The Palestinian Centre for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons urged Israel on Tuesday to provide all available information on bodies returned to Gaza, including “names of the victims and details about the circumstances of their deaths”. The centre said it received information that some of the bodies that were transferred on Tuesday were only partial remains, raising concerns about the circumstances of their death and detention
The health ministry said the bodies of 19 people had been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours. They include 16 bodies that were recovered from under the rubble, the ministry said in its daily report. Hospitals also received 35 injured Palestinians. The ministry said it did not add the 45 bodies that Israel transferred to Gaza on Tuesday to its tally.
The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is expected to reopen to allow people to cross on Thursday with an EU mission expected to deploy there, two sources have told Reuters. According to the news agency, the sources did not specify what restrictions might be applied to those seeking to cross. The Israeli military and the office of the Israeli prime minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters.
Mohammad Shtayyeh, special envoy to president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas said an agreement with the EU border assistance mission (EUBam) to help the authority manage the Rafah crossing effectively, which was paused in March as hostilities recommenced, is still valid. “We don’t need a new agreement. The agreement is there, and I think now it’s in the final shape of putting all the bits and pieces together for it to function,” he told reporters in Geneva on a visit to Switzerland where he met Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis.
The European Union said on Wednesday it is on standby to deploy EUBam at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza if conditions on the ground improve. Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the European Commission said the EUBam remains on standby to deploy to the Rafah crossing point “as soon as conditions allow.” He did not elaborate on those conditions.
Under Gaza’s ceasefire deal, Israel freed dozens of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other medical personnel seized during raids on hospitals. But more than 100 remain in Israeli prisons, including Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, a hospital director who became the face of the struggle to keep treating patients under Israeli siege and bombardment. Despite widespread calls for his release, Abu Safiya was not among the hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners freed on Monday in exchange for 20 hostages held by Hamas.
Palestinian Authority representatives are touring Europe to try to convince countries that have not yet recognised a Palestinian state to get onboard, a presidential envoy said during a visit to Switzerland on Wednesday. Former Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, now serving as special envoy for president Mahmoud Abbas, told reporters that he had met Switzerland’s top diplomat to push Berne to join “the countries who recognise Palestine”.
Israel’s siege on Gaza, which has killed one in every 33 locals, has also decimated infrastructure and ecosystems, according to a new report. The war in Gaza has left more than 300 water wells damaged or inaccessible while taking a major toll on the capacity of desalination plants. Sewage in Gaza constitutes another public health crisis, while Israeli troops have also damaged more than 80% of croplands in Gaza.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was back in a Tel Aviv court on Wednesday for the latest hearing in his long-running corruption trial, which opened in May 2020. The prime minister kept a smiling face as he and his entourage of several ministers from his conservative Likud party were heckled by protesters en route to the tribunal.
Gaza's Rafah crossing to Egypt expected to open for people on Thursday, sources tell Reuters
The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is expected to reopen to allow people to cross on Thursday with an EU mission expected to deploy there, two sources have told Reuters.
According to the news agency, the sources did not specify what restrictions might be applied to those seeking to cross.
The Israeli military and the office of the Israeli prime minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters.
The UN’s World Food Programme said it had dispatched more than 130 trucks of aid to the Gaza Strip since Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire.
The fragile agreement faced its first test when Israel said on Tuesday that the flow of vital humanitarian assistance into the territory would be cut by half and the crucial Rafah border crossing with Egypt would not open on Wednesday as planned, accusing Hamas of failing to comply with the deal agreed last week by delaying the return of the bodies of hostages. Israel retracted the threat on Wednesday.
Updated
The Palestinian Centre for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons urged Israel on Tuesday to provide all available information on bodies returned to Gaza, including “names of the victims and details about the circumstances of their deaths”.
The centre said it received information that some of the bodies that were transferred on Tuesday were only partial remains, raising concerns about the circumstances of their death and detention, reports the Associated Press (AP).
It called for Israel to immediately release all bodies in its custody, as well as provide information about the fate of forcibly disappeared Palestinians since the start of the war in Gaza two years ago. The centre said between 8,000 and 9,000 Palestinians have been missing or forcibly disappeared since the start of the war.
Away from Gaza and Israel, Syria’s interim leader held talks on Wednesday in Russia during his first visit to the country.
Welcoming interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa at the Kremlin, Russian president Vladimir Putin praised the historic links between Moscow and Damascus, and he voiced hope for their expansion. The meeting underlines Russia’s desire to establish working ties with Syria’s new leadership and secure a military foothold in the country, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday the future of the Russian bases in Syria was on the talks’ agenda.
Syrian state news agency Sana reported that al-Sharaa and Putin will “discuss regional and international developments of mutual interest and explore ways to develop cooperation to serve the common interests of both countries”.
According to the AP, Al-Sharaa did not mention the Russian bases in his brief televised remarks at the start of the meeting but emphasised the “long historic relationship” between the countries and their “common interests,” noting that Syria still partially depends on Russian production and expertise, particularly in the energy field. He said:
We are trying to restore and define in a new way the nature of this relationship.
Updated
Aid trucks roll into Gaza as Israel resumes preparations to open Rafah crossing
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, reports Reuters.
Israel had threatened to keep Rafah shut and reduce aid supplies because Hamas was returning bodies too slowly, showing the risks to a truce that has stopped two years of devastating warfare in Gaza and freed all living hostages held by Hamas.
However, the militant group returned more Israeli bodies overnight, and an Israeli security official said on Wednesday preparations were under way to open Rafah to citizens of Gaza, while a second official said that 600 aid trucks would go in.
A German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that reported executions by Hamas in Gaza in clashes with local clans constitute acts of terror against the population.
However, the spokesperson said that Germany sees an unchanged need to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians, reports Reuters.
The health ministry said the bodies of 19 people have been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours.
They include 16 bodies that were recovered from under the rubble, the ministry said in its daily report, according to the Associated Press (AP). Hospitals also received 35 injured.
The death toll from the Israel’s war in Gaza now stands at 67,938 since 7 October 2023, the ministry said. Another 169,638 have been injured, it added.
The ministry said it did not add the 45 bodies that Israel transferred to Gaza on Tuesday to its tally.
Updated
Palestinian Authority representatives are touring Europe to try to convince countries that have not yet recognised a Palestinian state to get onboard, a presidential envoy said during a visit to Switzerland on Wednesday.
Former Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, now serving as special envoy for president Mahmoud Abbas, told reporters that he had met Switzerland’s top diplomat to push Berne to join “the countries who recognise Palestine”, Reuters reports. He said he would be travelling on to the Netherlands and Austria with the same message.
“Another delegation will be going to the Baltic states, [and] our president hopefully will visit Italy and Germany,” he told the briefing, organised by the UN correspondents association ACANU.
A majority of European nations now recognise a Palestinian state, after official declarations last month by the UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and others against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.
A number of non-European states like Australia and Canada have also recently joined their ranks, in moves criticised by Israel.
Updated
The Egyptian Red Crescent said 400 trucks carrying food, fuel, and medical supplies were bound for the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The announcement comes as Israel and Hamas fight over the slow return of the bodies of deceased hostages.
On Tuesday, the Israeli defence body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, Cogat, notified humanitarian organisations that it would allow into Gaza only half the 600 daily aid trucks called for under the deal.
It was not immediately clear whether it was following through on the threat. Cogat declined to comment on the number of trucks expected to enter Gaza on Wednesday, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The European Union said on Wednesday it is on standby to deploy a longstanding humanitarian mission, known as the EU border assistance mission (EUBam), at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza if conditions on the ground improve.
Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the European Commission said the EUBam remains on standby to deploy to the Rafah crossing point “as soon as conditions allow.” He did not elaborate on those conditions. El Anouni added:
We remain on standby and we stand ready to deploy at short notice.
Updated
Forensic authorities in Gaza have started the identification process of 45 bodies of Palestinians that Israel released on Tuesday as part of the ceasefire deal, according to the health ministry. Israel is expected to transfer more bodies, though the total number has not been announced.
Israel handed over the bodies through the Red Cross without identification, the Associated Press (AP) reports. It was not immediately known if they were Palestinians who died in Israeli prisons or bodies taken from Gaza by Israeli troops. During the war, the Israeli military has exhumed bodies as part of its search for the remains of hostages.
At Nasser hospital, forensic experts at the morgue were taking photos of each body and whatever belongings and clothes were found in the body bag, the hospital said. The photos will then be published on the health ministry’s website so people can identify them.
Updated
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang welcomed Avinatan Or from “two unimaginable years in Hamas captivity” in Gaza, saying a number of the companie’s families had suffered losses during the war.
An electrical engineer at Nvidia in Israel, 32-year-old Or was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 along with 250 others including his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, whose desperate cries on the back of a motorcycle became one of the most haunting images of the Hamas attack.
“Avinatan – welcome home. Your safe return brings profound relief and joy to the entire Nvidia. We are here for you and for your family as you begin this next chapter of healing,” Huang wrote in a letter sent to Nvidia employees and seen by Reuters.
Or was released on Monday after 738 days in captivity by Hamas, in a US-brokered deal to end the two-year war in Gaza.
Video footage showed Or arriving at Beilinson hospital near Tel Aviv after his release, accompanied by his family and by Argamani, who spent 246 days in Gaza and was rescued by Israeli soldiers.
Citing testimonies from the hostages and initial medical reports, Israeli media said Or was starved and lost up to 40% of his body weight. He was completely isolated and did not see other hostages.
Huang wrote that “night after night” Nvidia employees had stood in a vigil with Or’s mother Ditza. He noted that for two years, thousands of Nvidia employees in Israel served in the military.
“Many have faced immense pain, loss, and uncertainty. Some have lost family members or loved ones,” he said. “The losses to our Jewish, Druze, and Arab families alike have been immense.”
Here are some of the latest images coming through on the newswires:
Israel’s siege on Gaza, which has killed one in every 33 locals, has also decimated infrastructure and ecosystems, according to a new report.
The war in Gaza, which UN groups have said is a genocide, has left more than 300 water wells damaged or inaccessible while taking a major toll on the capacity of desalination plants. As a result, water availability has plummeted to as little as 8.4 litres per person per day, says the paper from the Arava Institute in Israel and Damour for Community Development in Palestine. That is far below the World Health Organization’s emergency minimum of 15 litres daily.
Sewage in Gaza constitutes another public health crisis. Because the war has disabled treatment facilities, raw effluent is being diverted into open lagoons or seeps into porous soil, contaminating the aquifer and creating ideal conditions for waterborne disease outbreaks.
Israeli troops have also damaged more than 80% of croplands in Gaza, erasing local food production capacity and leaving more than 90% of Gaza’s population in crisis-level food insecurity.
With waste management infrastructure destroyed, people have also been forced to resort to burning waste. This has filled the air with particulate matter, raising risks for respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, only up to 6% of hazardous medical waste is being safely disposed of, creating additional biohazards.
Some experts have said Israel’s treatment of Gaza constitutes “ecocide“ and should be investigated as a possible war crime.
Updated
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was back in a Tel Aviv court on Wednesday for the latest hearing in his long-running corruption trial, which opened in May 2020.
The prime minister kept a smiling face as he and his entourage of several ministers from his conservative Likud party were heckled by protesters en route to the tribunal, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
It comes after US president Donald Trump suggested on Monday that the Israeli premier should be pardoned in his three separate corruption cases.
His latest appearance at the Tel Aviv court also follows the return of the hostages taken by Hamas as part of Trump’s US-brokered plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza.
In one case, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods, including champagne, cigars and jewellery, from billionaires in exchange for political favours. In two other instances, Netanyahu is also charged with attempting to negotiate better press coverage from two Israeli media outlets. He has denied any wrongdoing, claiming to be the victim of a political plot.
In an address on Monday to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Trump told the chamber that Netanyahu should receive a pardon in the graft cases. “Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about that?” Trump joked, before asking his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog: “Why don’t you give him a pardon?”
The Israeli premier is also subject to an arrest warrant issued by the international criminal court (ICC) on suspicion of ordering war crimes in his government’s assault on Hamas militants in Gaza.
Netanyahu holds the record for the most years spent at the head of Israel’s government, having served 18 years in several stints as premier since 1996.
Updated
Donald Trump suggested he might resort to violent methods to disarm Hamas after it was agreed in a ceasefire deal that the militant group would give up its weapons.
You can listen to Trump’s comments and view our video report below:
Mohammad Shtayyeh, special envoy to president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas said an agreement with the EU border assistance mission (EUBam) to help the authority manage the Rafah crossing effectively, which was paused in March as hostilities recommenced, is still valid.
“We don’t need a new agreement. The agreement is there, and I think now it’s in the final shape of putting all the bits and pieces together for it to function,” he told reporters in Geneva on a visit to Switzerland where he met Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis.
One of the four bodies handed over by Hamas on Tuesday night was not a missing hostage, the Israeli military have said (see earlier post), as the country’s far-right security minister called for a total halt on humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
The bodies of four people were released late on Tuesday evening after the Israeli government threatened to keep the Rafah road between Gaza and Egypt closed and to halve the expected flow of aid over Hamas’s failure.
The Israeli government was reacting to the despair and anger of grieving families that only four of the missing 28 deceased hostages had been released on Monday when the 20 living men came home.
The ceasefire agreement requires Hamas to return 28 Israeli bodies in exchange for 360 Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza.
Hamas told mediators it had lost nine of them under the rubble caused by recent bombing but the Israeli government has accused the organisation of putting insufficient effort to recovering the dead.
The government appears to have relented on their threats over the Rafah road and aid after Hamas provided four more bodies on Tuesday evening but forensic investigators have only so far identified three of the dead as Israeli.
Speaking on Tuesday, Itamar Ben Gvir, who is a security minister despite having been convicted in 2007 of racist incitement and supporting groups on terrorism blacklists, said Hamas was “playing games”.
He said:
Enough with the disgrace. Moments after opening the crossings to hundreds of trucks, Hamas very quickly returned to its known methods – to lie, to cheat, and to abuse families and the bodies. This Nazi terror understands only force, and the only way to deal with it is to erase it from the face of the earth.
Ben Gvir called on Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue “a clear ultimatum to Hamas: if you do not immediately return all the bodies of our fallen and you continue with these delays, we will immediately halt all aid supplies entering the Strip”.
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The Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday it is prepared to operate a key crossing for aid between Egypt and Gaza.
Mohammad Shtayyeh, special envoy to president of the authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said:
Now we are ready to engage again, and we have notified all parties that we are ready to operate the Rafah crossing.
Israeli military says one of the four bodies handed over by Hamas is not that of a hostage
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of the ceasefire deal is not that of one of the hostages who was held in Gaza.
Four bodies were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday to ease pressure on the fragile ceasefire, after the first four on Monday – when the last 20 living hostages were released.
The military said that “following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages”.
In the north of the territory, as Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City, the Hamas government’s black-masked armed police resumed street patrols, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A Palestinian security source in Gaza told AFP:
Our message is clear: There will be no place for outlaws or those who threaten the security of citizens.
Gaza civilians who spoke to AFP broadly welcomed the crackdown. “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.
Israel and the United States insist Hamas can have no role in a future Gaza government.
Trump’s 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 to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire. “And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will reopen Zikim beach near the northern border with the Gaza Strip to the general public, for the first time since 7 October 2023, the Times of Israel reports.
According to the publication:
Following a fresh assessment, the military says IDFchief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir approved a recommendation by the Southern Command to reopen Zikim Beach to the public, in coordination with the regional council, and remove a closed military zone imposed on the area since the start of the war.
Associated Press (AP) have more detail on Dr Hossam Abu Safiya mentioned in the previous post (see 8.40am BST).
AP reports that it is not known if Abu Safiya, 52, might still be released. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests by the news agency for comment. His family said on social media there were “no confirmed details about the date of his release,” adding that freed detainees described him as “in good health and strong spirits”.
The Israeli military said Abu Safiya was being investigated on suspicion of cooperating with or working for Hamas. Staff and international aid groups that worked with him deny the claims.
In November 2023, Israeli forces seized Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa hospital, declaring him a Hamas officer – but then released him seven months later.
Abu Safiya, a pediatrician, led Kamal Adwan hospital through an 85-day siege of the facility during an Israeli offensive in the surrounding districts of Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. The videos he put out made him a rallying figure for medical staff across Gaza who, like him, kept working under siege, even while injured or when family members were killed, reports the AP.
When troops raided the hospital on 27 December, images showed Abu Safiya in his white lab coat walking out of the building through streets of rubble toward an Israeli armoured vehicle to discuss evacuation of patients. Abu Safiya and dozens of others, including patients and staff, were then detained, reports the AP.
Abu Safiya “stayed in the hospital until the last moment. He didn’t leave because all health care services there would collapse if he left. Dr Hossam is a truly great man,” said Dr Saeed Salah, medical director of the Patient’s Friends hospital in Gaza City, who has known Abu Safiya for 29 years, told the AP.
Abu Safiya is being held at Israel’s Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli rights group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, which visited him in September, said he had not been brought before a judge or interrogated and had no information about why he was detained.
Under Gaza’s ceasefire deal, Israel freed dozens of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other medical personnel seized during raids on hospitals. But more than 100 remain in Israeli prisons, including Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, a hospital director who became the face of the struggle to keep treating patients under Israeli siege and bombardment, reports the Associated Press (AP)
Despite widespread calls for his release, Abu Safiya was not among the hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners freed on Monday in exchange for 20 hostages held by Hamas. Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, has been imprisoned without charge by Israel for nearly 10 months, reports the AP.
Health Workers Watch, which documents detentions from Gaza, said 55 medical workers – including 31 doctors and nurses – were on lists of detainees from Gaza being freed on Monday, though it could not immediately be confirmed all were released. The group said at least 115 medical workers remain in custody, as well as the remains of four who died while in Israeli prisons, where rights groups and witnesses have reported frequent abuse.
Cheering staff from al-Awda hospital carried on their shoulders their released director, Ahmed Muhanna, who was held by Israel for about 22 months since being seized in a raid on the facility in northern Gaza in late 2023.
“Al-Awda hospital will be restored, its staff will rebuild it with their own hands. . … I am proud of what we have done and will do,” Muhanna told well-wishers, his face visibly gaunter than before his detention, according to video posted on social media and seen by the AP.
Al-Awda hospital, damaged during multiple offensives in the largely leveled Jabaliya refugee camp, has been shut down since May, when it was forced to evacuate during Israel’s latest offensive.
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Families say bodies of three hostages identified
The families of former Gaza hostages Ouriel Baruch, Eitan Levy and Tamir Nimrodi, posted statements on social media after Israel’s forensic research laboratory confirmed the identities.
The identity of a fourth body returned by Hamas late on Tuesday is yet to be confirmed, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“It is with immense sadness and pain that we announce the return of the body of our beloved Ouriel Baruch from the Gaza Strip, after two long years of prayer, hope, and faith,” said the family of the Jerusalem resident who was kidnapped on 7 October 2023, at the Nova music festival at the age of 35.
Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levy’s relatives also announced the return of their remains to Israel. Tamir’s father Alon Nimrodi wrote on Facebook:
It is with a broken heart and unbearable grief that we announce that the body of Tamir, my eldest and beloved son, was brought back from Gaza [yesterday].
Tamir was a soldier captured at age 18 from a military base on the border with Gaza.
Eitan Levy’s family announced the return of the remains of the 53-year-old taxi driver who was killed after dropping off a friend at kibbutz Be’eri on the morning of the Hamas attack. His remains were taken into Gaza the same day.
Israel’s television channel 12 on Wednesday said that the remains of the fourth hostage returned on Tuesday were that of a Gaza resident, which authorities did not immediately confirm.
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By Monday night, Hamas had released four bodies, and four more followed late on Tuesday.
Of that second group of four bodies, three were identified, a group that represents many of their families said on Wednesday. The Hostages Family Forum, a group representing many of the hostages’ families, said the three were Ouriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levy.
Baruch was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Nimrodi, who had been serving with the Israeli defence body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, was taken by militants from the Erez border crossing. The forum says Levy was kidnapped while driving a friend to kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas attack.
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Israelis are identifying the second group of bodies handed over by Hamas as tenuous truce holds
Israel on Wednesday identified more bodies of dead hostages that were handed over by Hamas a day earlier to ease pressure on a fragile ceasefire in its war with Israel. The handover came after an Israeli military agency warned it would cut aid deliveries to Gaza as the militant group was not returning the remains as agreed.
Three of four bodies handed over on Tuesday night were identified as Israeli hostages but the identity of the fourth remained in question, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Hamas fulfil the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal – introduced by US president Donald Trump – about the return of the hostages’ bodies. Netanyahu said:
We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts until we return the last deceased hostage, until the last one.
The US-proposed ceasefire plan had called for all hostages – living and dead – to be handed over by a deadline that expired on Monday. But under the deal if that did not happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand over all as soon as possible.
On Monday, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 living hostages in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire’s first phase.
But families of hostages and their supporters expressed dismay that the 28 dead hostages were not all returned. Hamas and the Red Cross have said that recovering the remains of dead hostages was a challenge because of Gaza’s vast destruction, and Hamas told mediators of the deal that some are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.
Trump says Hamas will be forced to disarm or ‘we will disarm them'
Donald Trump has said that Hamas will be forced to disarm after questions swirled around the group’s status following the signing of a ceasfire deal meant to bring an end to the war in Gaza.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Trump said:
If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them and it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.
“But they will disarm, do you understand me?” he added, saying it should take place in a “reasonable period of time”.
As a Trump-brokered ceasefire comes into effect in Gaza this week, one of the greatest question marks remains the White House’s plans to force Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza if and when the second phase of his 20-point deal comes into effect.
The US president’s own remarks had suggested the group may continue to play a limited role in Gaza, as revelations surfaced of a direct meeting between White House envoys and Hamas negotiators in the highest-level summit ever held between the two sides.
Earlier this week, he admitted the group would have a “limited role” in maintaining order in the short term, raising questions about how the White House may seek to wrangle a peace deal that attempts to restrain Hamas and Israel from resuming the conflict.
Video released on Tuesday by Hamas showed the group’s members executing eight blindfolded, bound and kneeling men whom it called “collaborators and outlaws”. Agence France-Presse, which reported the video, said Hamas was targeting “Palestinian criminal gangs and clans” in Gaza after the signing of a ceasefire between the group and Israel.
Aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters Hamas would continue to have a limited role in enforcing security operations before phase two of the peace deal started, despite the fact his 20-point deal expressly said that the group will disarm and abandon its aim to control the Gaza Strip.
Trump said:
[Hamas] are standing because they do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time.
The rebuilding of Gaza, he said, would be dangerous and difficult, suggesting the US needed to work with forces on the ground to make that possible.
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Opening summary
Israel has reportedly decided to proceed with opening the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt and allowing the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza, after the return of the bodies of four hostages, according to Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
On Tuesday Israel said the flow of aid into the Gaza would be cut by half and the crucial Rafah border crossing with Egypt would not open as planned, blaming Hamas for delays in the return of bodies of hostages.
But after the militant group handed over the remains of four hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday night, bringing to eight the number of bodies transferred since the US-brokered ceasefire took hold, Israel changed tack, according to Kan and other media in Israel. Hamas has said it was facing obstacles as not all the burial sites had been identified.
Kan said on its website without citing sources:
Six hundred trucks of humanitarian aid will be dispatched [Wednesday] to the Gaza Strip by the UN, approved international organisations, the private sector and donor countries.
Here is where things stand on Wednesday morning in the Middle East:
Hamas handed over four more bodies of Israeli hostages on Tuesday evening as Israel threatened to reduce aid into Gaza over delays to the release of remains. The Israeli military said in a statement: “According to information provided by the Red Cross, four coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their custody and are on their way to IDF [military] and ISA [security agency] forces in the Gaza Strip.”
Four bodies returned earlier were named as Yossi Sharabi, Daniel Peretz, Guy Iluz and Bipin Joshi.
Donald Trump has warned that Hamas must disarm or “we will disarm them”, after he earlier declared that phase two of his ceasefire agreement for Gaza “begins right now”. “They said they were going to disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” the US president told reporters. Asked how he would do that, Trump said: “I don’t have explain that to you, but if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. They know I’m not playing games.” Trump added that could happen “quickly and perhaps violently”.
Re-emergent Hamas fighters have demonstrated they were reasserting control in Gaza by deploying hundreds of security forces in the streets and executing several people they accused of collaborating with Israel.
A nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has returned to the West Bank after four years of self-exile, outlining a roadmap to secure peace in Gaza with Hamas transforming into a political party and declaring his readiness to help govern. Nasser al-Qudwa, a prominent critic of the current Palestinian leadership, also urged “a serious confrontation of corruption in this country”.
Some of the near 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees released on Monday are suffering from a range of health problems they developed during years in Israeli detention, doctors and freed prisoners in the occupied West Bank told the Associated Press. The Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah received 14 men released on Monday as part of the exchange and discharged all but two. Nasser hospital in Gaza also said the Red Cross transferred the bodies of 45 Palestinians to its morgue. The bodies were the first of an expected 450 to arrive.
The European Union should maximise its influence in Gaza’s recovery process and join a US-proposed “board of peace” intended to temporarily oversee governance of the territory, the EU’s diplomatic arm said in a document seen by Reuters. Israel and Hamas carried out a hostage-prisoner exchange on Monday and a ceasefire is in force under the first phase of president Donald Trump’s 20-point initiative for Gaza after two years of war.
The Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that halts two years of armed conflict in Gaza presents an opportunity for a lasting economic recovery in the region, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) deputy chief economist said on Tuesday. Petya Koeva-Brooks said the IMF stands ready to cooperate with the international community on the recovery of Gaza and regional economies that have been deeply affected by the conflict, including Egypt and Jordan.
