Hamas said that it is committed to honoring the ceasefire deal agreed to earlier this month with Israel, but it is having a hard time locating and retrieving the bodies of about two-thirds of the dead hostages that were taken during the 7 October 2023 attack.
The Houthis announced last week that one of the group’s top commanders died in an airstrike coordinated between the Israelis and Americans, according to reports.
Hamas has taken an active role in Gaza amid the early stages of the ceasefire with Israel, proving to Israel that not only is it not defeated, but capable of filling the power vacuum left behind as Israeli forces move to the perimeter of the battered enclave.
The U.S. told Israel to “show restraint” on Sunday after Tel Aviv accused Hamas of carrying out attacks on IDF troops inside Gaza, as both sides approached the deal with some level of expectation that Israel will ramp up its massacre campaign inside the enclave.
The death toll in Gaza reached 67,869, with more than 170,105 Palestinians wounded.
Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, said Thursday that he did not agree with the ceasefire deal that was signed by Hamas and the Israeli government, but said that didn’t matter anyway, because Israel will continue where it left off after it receives the hostages.
The IDF on Saturday carried out airstrikes around southern Lebanon to hit heavy machinery that the Israelis say were being used to help Hezbollah build new fortifications in the region, a claim rejected by Beirut as pure nonsense.
The UN announced last week that the IDF managed to destroy at least 83 percent of the structures in Gaza City—the location of the army’s last major offensive before Hamas and Israel announced the approval of a U.S.-backed ceasefire.
Israel continued to carry out strikes across Gaza on Thursday, despite the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel after the two-year genocide.
Major protests broke out over the weekend in capitals across Europe in support of the Palestinians in Gaza being tormented and killed by the IDF and the humanitarian-aid flotilla that was intercepted in international waters before reaching the battered enclave.