Hamas has returned the remains of another prisoner of war to Israel as Palestinians across the Gaza Strip prepare for a cold winter without adequate shelter, food and other vital supplies.
Palestinian groups announced Wednesday that they would return the remains of Israeli prisoners of war through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later approved the transfer, and the bodies of six prisoners now remain in Gaza.
The return of the bodies has become a major sticking point in the US-brokered ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, with the latter accusing Palestinian groups of violating the agreement by not releasing all the bodies.
But Hamas said the recovery effort was complicated by widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, as well as Israel’s restrictions on the access of heavy machinery and bulldozers to assist in the search.
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh newspaper reported that the bodies returned on Wednesday were recovered after four days of digging through rubble in the Shujaiya district in east Gaza City.
Odeh said the area “has been under Israeli military control and operations for many months,” and explained that a team of Egyptian experts had joined the effort.
It added that Israel has made clear that it will not “fulfill its commitments under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement,” including the free flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, until all bodies are returned.
Separately, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in central Gaza, claiming they had crossed the ceasefire yellow line near Israeli positions.
Gaza health authorities said Israeli fires also killed a Palestinian collecting firewood in central Gaza, Reuters reported.
“A fake truce”
The United Nations warned earlier this week that although aid deliveries have increased since the ceasefire took effect in October, the amount of food and other aid being brought into the territory remains insufficient.
“We need full access. We need everything to move quickly,” Abeer Etefa, senior spokesperson for the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), told reporters on Tuesday.
“We are in a race against time. The winter season is approaching. People are still going hungry and the needs are overwhelming,” Etefa said, appealing for more borders to Gaza to be opened to deliver supplies to Palestinians in need.
Gazan authorities announced last week that Israel had allowed an average of 145 aid trucks to enter Gaza per day from the cease-fire’s entry into force until the end of October, just 24% of the 600 trucks that are supposed to enter daily as part of the deal.
The Norwegian Refugee Council also announced on Wednesday that Israeli authorities had rejected 23 requests from aid agencies to bring tents, blankets and other shelter supplies into Gaza.
“The window of opportunity to protect families from the winter rain and cold is very short,” Angelita Caleda, the group’s Middle East and North Africa regional director, said in a statement.
“More than three weeks after the ceasefire, Gaza should be seeing a surge in shelter supplies, but only a fraction of what is needed. The international community must act now to ensure prompt and unhindered access.”
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians, many of whom remain displaced after two years of Israeli bombing destroyed their homes, are forced to forage for food in community kitchens across the Strip.
“Life is difficult for us because we don’t own anything, we don’t have anything to buy food from. We don’t have a job,” Abdel Majid al-Zaiti, 55, a father of nine from Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, told Al Jazeera in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
“If it wasn’t for this soup kitchen, we wouldn’t be able to eat. This soup kitchen keeps us alive and keeps us alive,” he said.
Another displaced Palestinian, Hind Hijazi, 43, said he was struggling to feed his family despite the ceasefire. “I come to the soup kitchen here every day to feed the children,” said the mother of six.
“They say there is a ceasefire, but the siege is still going on, so it’s a sham ceasefire.”
