‘Fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region

• Two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire
• Opening of Rafah crossing delayed 
• Israel returns 30 Palestinian bodies to Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel was "determined" to secure the return of the remains of all hostages still held in Gaza, vowing that the "fight is not over yet".

"We are determined to secure the return of all hostages," Netanyahu said at a state ceremony at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery, marking the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the military campaign in Gaza.

"The fight is not over yet, but one thing is clear -- whoever lays a hand on us knows they will pay a very heavy price. We are determined to win a victory that will shape our surroundings for many years," he added, a day after Hamas said it had handed over all the captives it could access.

Israel said yesterday it was preparing for the reopening of Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt to let Palestinians in and out but set no date as it traded blame with Hamas over violations of a US-mediated ceasefire.

Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters Israel remained committed to the agreement and continued to uphold its obligations, demanding Hamas return the bodies of the 19 deceased hostages it had not handed over.

The Islamist faction has handed over 10 bodies, but Israel said one was not that of a hostage. The group says it has handed over all bodies it could recover.

The armed wing of Hamas said the handover of more bodies in Gaza, reduced to vast tracts of rubble by the war, would require the admission of heavy machinery and excavating equipment into the Israel-blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official yesterday accused Israel of flouting the ceasefire by killing at least 24 people in shootings since last Friday and said a list of such violations was handed over to mediators.

"The occupying state is working day and night to undermine the agreement through its violations on the ground," he said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond. It has previously said some Palestinians have ignored warnings not to approach Israeli ceasefire positions, and troops "opened fire to remove the threat".

On the day, local health authorities said an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed two people. The Israeli military said its forces fired at several individuals who emerged from a tunnel shaft and approached troops, describing them as posing an immediate threat.

Israel has said the next phase of the 20-point plan to end the war, a blueprint engineered by US President Donald Trump's administration, calls for Hamas to relinquish its weapons and cede power, which it has so far refused to do.

Hamas has instead launched a security crackdown in urban areas vacated by Israeli forces, demonstrating its power through public executions and clashes with local armed clans.

Twenty remaining living hostages were freed on Monday in exchange for thousands of Palestinians jailed in Israel.

The Gaza health ministry said yesterday Israel had released 30 bodies of Palestinians killed during the conflict, taking the number of bodies it has received since Monday to 120.

Aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday, and Israel said 600 had been approved to go in under the truce pact. Fletcher called that a "good base" but nowhere near enough, with medical care also scarce and most of the 2.2 million population homeless.

On Thursday UNICEF said that in recent days it brought in 250 pallets of supplies, including family tents, winter clothes, tarpaulins, sanitary pads and hygiene kits. It has also distributed more than 56,000 packs of baby food to help 12,500 children for two weeks, UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram said.

Much of the heavily urbanised enclave has been rendered a wasteland by Israeli bombardments and airstrikes that have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

The military campaign was triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.