Israel will no longer reopen the Rafah crossing, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, this Wednesday, October 15, as had been announced.
Israeli public television had announced that this crossing would be reopened, allowing 600 trucks with humanitarian aid to enter the Palestinian enclave. However, this will no longer happen. “Humanitarian aid will not pass through the Rafah Crossing,” the Israeli security official assured the BBC. “No agreement of this type has been reached at any time,” said the head of Cogat, the Israeli military organization responsible for aid, adding that the opening date of the crossing for the movement of people will be announced later.
With the reopening, it was expected that 600 humanitarian aid trucks would be sent to the Gaza Strip by the UN, authorized international organizations, the private sector and donor countries.
On Tuesday night, Hamas handed over four more bodies of hostages, as part of the ceasefire agreement with Israel, sponsored by the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
On Tuesday night, Israeli authorities said that the Red Cross already had in its possession four coffins of Israeli hostages killed in Gaza.
This Wednesday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office confirmed that three of the four bodies handed over by Hamas during the night are those of Eitan Levy, aged 53, soldier Tamir Nimrodi, aged 20, and Uriel Baruch, aged 35.
“Following completion of the identification process by the National Center for Forensic Medicine, in cooperation with the Israel Police and the Chief Rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces, we are notifying the families of hostages Uriel Baruch, Sergeant Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levy that their identification has been completed,” said a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The Government and institutions of the State of Israel dedicated to the missing and hostages are determined, committed and working tirelessly to ensure that all our dead hostages receive a dignified burial in their country”, the note reads.
According to local press reports, Israel believes that the fourth body delivered in recent hours by Hamas is not a hostage, something that Netanyahu’s Office has not yet officially confirmed.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and ‘drones’ (self-piloted aircraft) opened fire today in several locations in the north of the Gaza Strip and in the city of Rafah, to the south, hitting refugee tents in Mawasi, reported the Spanish news agency EFE.
So far, there are no reports of fatalities or injured people due to what happened.