Gaza latest: Israel says body returned by Hamas is not a hostage after closing Rafah Crossing to aid

The Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday it is prepared to operate the Gaza-side of a key crossing for aid between Egypt and Gaza.

“Now we are ready to engage again, and we have notified all parties that we are ready to operate the Rafah crossing,” said Mohammad Shtayyeh, special envoy to President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

An Israeli security official said on Wednesday that the crossing was closed to aid amid conflicting reports. Preparations are said to be underway for the movement of citizens.

It was not clear whether the 600 trucks due to enter the enclave on Wednesday would cross the border. Aid trucks entered Gaza through other crossings.

One Israeli official told Reuters that 600 trucks would enter Gaza – the full daily complement required under the ceasefire plan.

The father of a hostage recently returned to Israel said his son was handcuffed to a cage for a year after he tried to escape.

Yaron Or told Kan radio that his son, Avinatan, was handcuffed to “a barred place” some 1.8 metres high and the length of a mattress after he tried to run away.

He said that his son was beaten, and that he was held in a tunnel for the entire duration of his captivity.

Hamas agreed to repatriate the 48 hostages it still held in Gaza as part of the initial ceasefire deal.

The group handed back all 20 living hostages on Monday. This week, it began returning the remains of the 28 believed to be dead.

Four bodies were returned on Monday, and another four came on Tuesday.

Relatives identified three of the bodies returned on Tuesday, but the IDF said following a forensic investigation that the fourth did not match any of the remaining hostages.

Hamas is expected to return another four bodies on Wednesday, sources told Israeli media.

Hamas and Israel previously agreed to create a mechanism to search for the remains of hostages in Gaza, CNN reported, adding that no such mechanism has so far been set up.

Bodies of Palestinians repatriated to Gaza this week have arrived blindfolded, with signs of gunshot wounds or having been run over by tanks, the enclave’s Nasser hospital said in a harrowing report.

Some 45 deceased Palestinians were transferred from Israel to the Nasser Medical Complex on Monday.

The hospital’s forensic department told CNN on Tuesday that they were yet to be identified.

All arrived with their hands and legs cuffed, the hospital said. They arrived with numbers marking them, rather than their names, it said.

“Some are blindfolded, and there are signs of gunshot wounds in some cases, while others have been run over by tanks.”

Hamas is expected to transfer four more bodies of hostages to Israel on Wednesday, sources told the Times of Israel.

A Middle Eastern diplomat and a second source familiar with the matter told the Israeli outlet Hamas had informed mediators it would repatriate the remains amid confusion of the return of bodies late on Tuesday.

Four bodies were returned to Israel last night and three were identified as the remains of hostages. But the IDF said on Wednesday, following a forensic investigation, that the fourth did not belong to any hostage.

An Israeli source also told CNN that Hamas was expected to return more bodies today.

Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump announced his “everlasting peace”, Palestinians were still being killed in Gaza, aid trucks stopped going in and a row broke out about the failure of Hamas to return the bodies of dead Israeli hostages.

All of these grim, and sadly all too predictable factors, threaten to topple the whole ceasefire process.

Our Chief International Correspondent, Bel Trew, reports:

The fourth body returned to Israel late on Tuesday does not belong to a hostage, the IDF said on Wednesday.

“Following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages,” it said in a statement.

“Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages.”

Hamas returned the remains of four more hostages, totalling eight, on Tuesday. A further 20 are believed to remain in Gaza, with pressure piling on Hamas to repatriate the bodies.

Humanitarian aid continued to enter Gaza through the Kissufim and Kerem Shalom crossings under the supervision of UN agencies, Al Jazeera Arabic reported on Wednesday.

Both border crossings allow for the delivery of aid from Israel into Gaza.

An Israeli security official told The Independent that the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza would remain shut after reports early on Wednesday indicated it would reopen.

Hamas must be ‘erased from the face of the earth’, Israel’s national security minister insisted as tensions again rose over the delayed return of Israeli hostages.

Itamar Ben Gvir accused the Palestinian group of “abus[ing] families and the bodies” after it returned just four more bodies late on Tuesday.

“Nazi terror understands only force, and the only way to solve problems with it is to wipe it off the face of the earth,” he wrote on Telegram.

On Tuesday, Ben Gvir had called on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to issue a clear ultimatum to Hamas: If you do not immediately return all the bodies of our fallen soldiers and continue delaying – we will immediately stop all aid supplies entering the Strip.”

Hamas has released its last living captives, but is yet to hand over the remains of 20 hostages.