Israel returns the remains of the last Palestinians they had held…
The Trump plan IS steaming along…
The question of Hamas disarming IS STILL NOT seriously addressed….
Israel turned over the bodies of 15 Palestinians on Thursday, just days after recovering the remains of the last Israeli hostage, a Gaza Health Ministry official said.
It marks the last hostage-detainee exchange between Israel and Hamas carried out as part of the first phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached in October.
The Red Cross said that it helped facilitate the return of the bodies. They were taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, health ministry spokeperson Zaher al-Wahidi said.
The return of all remaining hostages, living or dead, had been a key part of the first phase in the ceasefire that paused the war.
Israel agreed to return 15 Palestinian bodies for each hostage recovered, according to the ceasefire terms. It’s unclear if the bodies released Thursday were of Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody or bodies taken from Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.
Israel has released roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners under the ceasefire deal, many of whom were seized by Israeli troops during the more than two-year war and held without being charged. It also has released the bodies of 360 Palestinians back to Gaza, where officials have struggled to identify them….
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Israeli views on Hamas in Gaza….
Israel’s defense establishment believes that Hamas will soon relinquish authority over the Gaza Strip to a newly formed committee of Palestinian technocrats; however, at least in the short term, the terror group would remain de facto in control of the territory, an Israeli security official said Thursday.
Hamas currently retains control of just under half of Gaza following an October ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump in which the Israel Defense Forces partially withdrew. The agreement, laid out in Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war, ties further Israeli troop withdrawals to the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza.
While Jerusalem sees Hamas as unlikely to voluntarily disarm, the security official admitted that compelling it to do so by force could be expected to take years, though the goal is attainable….
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“Protocols are prepared, files are complete, and committees are in place to oversee the handover, ensuring a complete transfer of governance in the Gaza Strip across all sectors to the technocratic committee,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP on Wednesday.
According to the security official, Israel believes that even if Hamas officially announces that it has handed over control of Gaza to the technocratic government, it would still have tens of thousands of armed members in its military wing and internal security forces across the Strip, as well as civil servants in key roles…
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This week, Reuters reported that the Hamas government urged its more than 40,000 civil servants and security personnel to cooperate with the technocratic body, and assured them it was working to incorporate them into the new government. That would include the roughly 10,000-strong Hamas-run armed police force…
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In the short term, nothing would change on the ground in Gaza with the handover of authority from Hamas to the technocratic government, the security official said, stressing that the terror group would remain in power — and continue to try and get stronger — both militarily and on the domestic front.
A related sticking point for Israel is the issue of Hamas disarmament, as stipulated in Trump’s plan. Two Hamas officials told Reuters this week that neither Washington nor the mediators had presented the terror group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal yet.
The Trump administration wants to see heavy weapons — such as rockets and missiles — decommissioned immediately, with “personal arms” being registered to the technocratic body’s police force. Israel is expected to demand that only handguns be allowed to be used by Gaza’s new police, with assault rifles and any other heavy weapons handed over….
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The official also suggested that should Hamas not hand over authority to the technocrats committee and disarm, Israel could resort to the “Hezbollah model,” referring to near-daily strikes on infrastructure and operatives detected attempting to rebuild the Lebanese terror group in Lebanon following a November 2024 ceasefire.
And without Hamas disarming, Israel is not expected to withdraw troops from the Strip or approve any rebuilding efforts in the war-torn territory, including plans for a housing compound on the ruins of Rafah, an area controlled by the IDF…..
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