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The delay in handing over the dead hostages has caused tensions between Israel and Hamas

The agreement already mentioned the difficulty of recovering some bodies, some of which are missing, and it was therefore envisaged that an international working group would be set up to assist in this.

Gaza Egipto Rafah EFE
Trucks waiting to enter Gaza from Rafah, in a stock image. Photo: EFE

The delay in the return of the 24 hostages killed in the Gaza Strip has tightened Hamas's agreement with Israel, which is considering limiting humanitarian aid to Gaza through the Rafah crossing until the Islamist group delivers all the bodies.

Although Egypt hoped to reopen this passage "in the next few hours", an Israeli Government source has reported that security officials have "advised" the Government not to reopen the crossing, but the Government has not yet taken a decision on this.

On the other hand, an Egyptian security source close to the negotiations has said that Hamas has conveyed to the ceasefire mediators (Egypt, Qatar, and the US) its commitment to hand over the bodies of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip and has ensured that efforts are being made to comply with what has been agreed.

Tension has escalated the day after the signing of the Israeli-Hamas agreement, which, following the release of the 20 remaining hostages in Gaza, has returned only four of the 28 hostages killed by the Islamist group.

So far, Hamas has handed over the bodies of Guy Iluz, Bipin Joshi, Yossi Sharabi and Daniel Perez.

However, the ceasefire agreement designed by President Donald Trump provided for the delivery on Monday of the bodies of all the hostages killed.

However, it had already been pointed out that this situation could be difficult to recover and that some of them have disappeared, so that, as the agreement itself states, an international working group would be set up to assist in this.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has stated that handing over the remains to relatives would take "much longer than a single day" due to the difficulty of finding the remains "that may be under the rubble, given the intensity of the conflict."

ICRC spokesman Christian Cardon told reporters this Tuesday at his headquarters in Geneva that his organization is not participating in the search for the remains.

Anger among the relatives of the hostages

Relatives of the hostages have expressed concern about the fate of the remaining 24 dead in the Gaza Strip and have urged the Israeli Government to suspend its ceasefire agreement with Hamas if the Islamist group does not hand over the bodies of its relatives.

The Israeli Government has made no statement on this, but it has not ruled out the reopening of the Rafah crossing as a measure of pressure for Hamas to comply with its part of the agreement and has already announced that it will allow only half of the agreed humanitarian aid to enter.

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