JERUSALEM – Israel is expected to allow Gaza’s sole border crossing to the outside world to reopen today, Wednesday 15 October, permitting humanitarian aid into the devastated territory as part of a US-backed ceasefire agreement.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported the reopening was imminent, despite ongoing questions over Hamas’s transfer of deceased hostages’ remains under a prisoner swap deal spearheaded by US President Donald Trump after two years of conflict.
The exchange has seen the last 20 surviving hostages return home in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails, alongside a cessation of fighting and bombardment.
Hamas has returned eight bodies to date, seven of which have been identified. The remains of 20 others remain in Gaza, creating domestic pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to link aid deliveries to the fate of these bodies.
“It is with a broken heart and unbearable grief that we announce that the body of Tamir, my eldest and beloved son, was brought back from Gaza,” wrote Alon Nimrodi on Facebook. His son Tamir was an 18-year-old soldier captured from a military base on the Gaza border.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has threatened to cut off aid supplies to Gaza if Hamas fails to return the remains of soldiers still held in the territory.
According to KAN, the decision to reopen the Rafah crossing also followed Israel’s notification of Hamas’s intention to return four more bodies Wednesday—a move not yet confirmed by the militant group.
The war, triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, created a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. The densely-populated territory became reliant on aid that was heavily restricted or completely cut off.
The United Nations declared a famine in Gaza at the end of August, though Israel rejected this assessment.
“Six hundred trucks of humanitarian aid will be dispatched on Wednesday to the Gaza Strip by the UN, approved international organizations, the private sector and donor countries,” KAN reported.
The aid restoration is part of Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which also demands Hamas’s disarmament—a requirement the militant group has rejected.
In Gaza, Hamas is consolidating its grip on ruined cities, launching a crackdown and executing alleged collaborators. The group published video footage on its official channel showing the street execution of eight blindfolded suspects, labeling them “collaborators and outlaws.”
The footage, apparently from Monday evening, emerged amid armed clashes between Hamas’s security units and Palestinian clans, some allegedly backed by Israel.
As Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City in the north, Hamas government’s masked police resumed street patrols.
“Our message is clear: There will be no place for outlaws or those who threaten the security of citizens,” a Palestinian security source told AFP.
Gaza civilians who spoke to AFP broadly supported the crackdown.
“After the war ended and the police spread out in the streets, we started to feel safe,” said Abu Fadi Al-Banna, 34, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.
Israel and the United States maintain that Hamas cannot participate in any future Gaza government. Trump’s plan offers amnesty to Hamas members who agree to “decommission their weapons.”
“If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” Trump told reporters at the White House following his Middle East visit to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire. “And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
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