Hamas accused Israel of multiple breaches of their ceasefire agreement yesterday, a day before the scheduled exchange of three more Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners in the latest stage in a fragile deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
As well as delaying the entry of hundreds of trucks carrying food and other humanitarian supplies, Hamas said Israel had only allowed in a fraction of the tents and mobile homes needed to provide shelter to people returning to their bombed-out homes.
Almost three weeks after the start of the ceasefire, “the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate dangerously,” Hamas said in a statement.
The statement underlined the fragility of the deal reached last month with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the US.
So far, 13 Israeli hostages of the 33 children, women and older men set to be released in the first, 42-day phase of the agreement have come home and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been released in exchange. Five Thai hostages have also been returned.
Work on the second stage of the multi-phase agreement, aimed at securing the release of around 60 male hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, has begun and an Israeli negotiating team was expected to fly today to Doha, Israeli media reported yesterday.
However, the accusations levelled by Hamas against Israel showed how little trust there was between the two sides following more than 15 months of the bloodiest episode in the decades-long conflict.
The Israeli military said yesterday that commanders were conducting situational assessments ahead of the next phase of the agreement currently being discussed, with troops deployed at various points around the Gaza Strip.
Hamas said only 8,500 trucks out of the 12,000 that should have arrived so far had entered the Gaza Strip, most containing food and secondary goods including chips and chocolate instead of other urgent needs.
“This demonstrates clear manipulation of relief and shelter priorities,” it said.
In addition, only 10 per cent of the 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans needed to provide shelter had arrived, it said, leaving hundreds of thousands in harsh winter weather.
Finally, heavy machinery needed to clear millions of tonnes of rubble and recover the thousands of bodies thought to be buried had not arrived.
Hundreds of thousands of people are caught in tents and other makeshift shelters worn out by months of use as the fighting raged last year.
So far, despite accusations of ceasefire breaches levelled by both sides, the truce has held, leaving the way still open to an end to the war and rebuilding Gaza, which now lies in ruins.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages.
In response, Israel opened a campaign that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities and devastated the enclave.
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