Among the released Palestinians are 1,700 people arrested in Gaza and detained without charge. PHOTO: REUTERS
CAIRO/TEL AVIV:
Israel said Thursday it was preparing to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to allow Palestinians in and out, but set no date as it traded blame with Hamas for violations of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
A dispute over the return of the bodies of hostages held by Hamas threatens to derail the truce and other unresolved elements of the plan, including the disarmament of fighters and the future governance of Gaza. Hamas claims to have handed over all the bodies it was able to recover.
The group added that handing over more bodies to Gaza – reduced to vast expanses of rubble by the war – would require admitting heavy machinery and excavation equipment into the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave.
A senior Hamas official accused Israel of flouting the ceasefire by killing at least 24 people in shootings since Friday, and said a list of such violations had been given to mediators. “The occupying state is working day and night to undermine the agreement through its violations on the ground,” he said.
Israel has previously said some Palestinians ignored warnings not to approach Israeli ceasefire positions and that troops “opened fire to eliminate the threat.” Later Thursday, local health authorities said an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, had killed two people.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Thursday that the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) would work with international institutions and partners to address Gaza’s security, logistical, financial and governance challenges.
Meanwhile, in a statement released on Thursday, Israeli military aid agency COGAT said coordination was underway with Egypt to set a date for reopening the Rafah crossing to the movement of people after completing the necessary preparations.
COGAT said Rafah would not be open to aid as it was not stipulated by the truce agreement, but instead all humanitarian goods would pass through Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom after security inspections. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Rafah would likely be reopened on Sunday.
As famine reigns in parts of Gaza, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that thousands of humanitarian vehicles are now expected to enter Gaza every week to ease the crisis.
Aid trucks arrived in Gaza on Wednesday and Israel said 600 of them had been allowed in under the truce agreement. Fletcher called that a “good baseline,” but far from enough, with medical care also scarce and most of the 2.2 million residents homeless.
On Thursday, UNICEF said it had delivered 250 pallets of supplies in recent days, including family tents, winter clothes, tarpaulins, sanitary napkins and hygiene kits. It also distributed more than 56,000 packets of baby food to help 12,500 children over two weeks, UNICEF spokeswoman Tess Ingram said.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas press office in Gaza, said the aid arriving since the end of the fighting was a “drop in the ocean.” “The region urgently needs a large, continued and organized influx of aid, fuel, cooking gas, relief and medical supplies,” he told Reuters.
