A senior Hamas official says Israel is obstructing efforts to locate and return captive bodies in Gaza, blaming its widespread destruction of the territory and recent decisions to close the Rafah crossing and reduce humanitarian aid deliveries.
The official said many captives and their Palestinian guards were killed during Israel’s military strikes, causing loss of communication with units responsible for the bodies.
He placed responsibility for the deaths and missing bodies, believed to be buried under rubble along with thousands of civilians, on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his cabinet, and the military.
The official made the remarks in an interview Tuesday, following Israel’s decision to close the Rafah crossing and reduce humanitarian aid deliveries -- moves Hamas says violate the terms of the recent ceasefire agreement.
Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, had previously warned that Israeli attacks risked killing captives, but the strikes continued unabated, the source said. “The main difficulty in finding the bodies is losing contact with the guards because the Israelis killed them,” he added.
He stressed that the presence of Israeli forces and their indiscriminate attacks made it harder to locate the bodies, requiring more time and effort.
Despite the challenges, Hamas remains committed to returning the remains of all captives and is cooperating with international parties involved in the agreement, even amid last-minute changes to prisoner lists.
Hamas has already fulfilled its part by releasing all 20 remaining living Israeli captives and four coffins of deceased captives. However, the timing for releasing the bodies of 28 captives declared dead remains unclear.
COGAT, the Israeli military body reporting on aid deliveries into Gaza, has also informed the UN that no fuel or gas will be permitted into the territory, except for specific humanitarian infrastructure needs.
It blamed Hamas for the decision to limit aid trucks to 300 daily, citing the slow release of captives’ bodies.
"Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip. As a result, the political leadership has decided to impose a number of sanctions related to the humanitarian agreement that was reached," a COGAT note claimed.
Hamas and Israel exchanged captives with prisoners on Monday as part of a ceasefire deal to end the occupying regime's genocidal war on Gaza.
A day after receiving all living Israeli captives, Israel announced that the Rafah crossing would remain closed through Wednesday, restricting the flow of critical humanitarian aid into Gaza in violation of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
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