American President Donald Trump and the Israel ’s defence minister have both indicated on Wednesday that Israel will resume the war in Gaza if Hamas refuses to release all the remaining deceased hostages.
This was made after Hamas said it would be unable to retrieve any more bodies from the ruins of Gaza without specialised equipment.
President Trump brokered a ceasefire agreement which mandated the Palestinian Islamist group to hand back 20 surviving hostages to Israel in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
Before now, Hamas had already returned the remains of nine of 28 known deceased hostages – along with an eighth body which Israel said was not that of a former hostage.
According to a statement credited to the Israeli Defence Minister “If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the United States, will resume fighting and act to achieve a total defeat of Hamas, to change the reality in Gaza and achieve all the objectives of the war,”.
Throwing his weight behind the threat, the peacebroker and American President Trump reaffirmed that threat, telling CNN on Wednesday that he would consider allowing Israeli forces to resume fighting in Gaza.
According to Trump, “Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word. If Israel could go in and knock the crap out of them, they will do that,”
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has threatened to cut off desperately needed aid supplies to Gaza if Hamas fails to return the remains of soldiers still held in the Palestinian territory.
Israel, meanwhile, transferred another 45 Palestinian bodies that had been in its custody to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, bringing the number returned to 90, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
Under the Trump plan, Israel is to return 15 Palestinian dead for every deceased Israeli hostage.
The new look of the war zone after the peace deal
The war sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel led to a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with the densely populated territory reliant on aid that was heavily restricted, when not cut off outright.
At the end of August, the United Nations declared a famine in Gaza, though Israel rejected the claim. The return of aid is listed in Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza.
Another political challenge is Hamas’ disarmament, a demand the militant group has refused to accept.
