Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that the war in Gaza will not end until Hamas is disarmed and the Palestinian territory fully demilitarised.
Netanyahu made the declaration on Saturday as Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, announced plans to hand over the remains of two more hostages to the Red Cross.
The Israeli military confirmed that a Red Cross team was on its way to collect “several” bodies late Saturday night. The fate of the remaining hostages has become a key sticking point in the ongoing ceasefire’s first phase, with Israel linking the reopening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to the return of all hostages’ bodies.
Netanyahu said completing the second phase of the ceasefire required “the disarming of Hamas or more precisely, the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip.”
“When that is successfully completed hopefully in an easy way, but if not, in a hard way then the war will end,” he told Israel’s Channel 14.
Under the US-brokered ceasefire deal, Hamas has released 20 living hostages and the remains of 10 others in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and 135 bodies of Palestinians since the truce began on October 10.
Hamas said it needed more time and equipment to retrieve remaining bodies buried under Gaza’s rubble.
The reopening of Rafah crossing remains uncertain. While the Palestinian mission in Cairo hinted it could reopen Monday for Gazans returning from Egypt, Netanyahu’s office later ordered it remain closed “until further notice,” pending Hamas’s compliance with the agreement.
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Meanwhile, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher visited northern Gaza, describing the destruction as “a wasteland.” He said the UN’s 60-day plan includes delivering one million meals a day, restoring health services, setting up winter shelters, and reopening schools.
Despite the truce, violence has continued. Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli tank shells killed nine members of the Shaaban family, including four children, after troops fired on a bus.
At Al-Ahli Hospital, the victims’ relatives wept over shrouded bodies.
“My daughter, her children and her husband; my son, his children and his wife were killed. What did they do wrong?” asked Umm Mohammed Shaaban.
The Israeli military claimed its forces fired only after a vehicle ignored warnings and posed “an imminent threat” near a restricted area.
