Israel says Rafah crossing stays shut until hostage bodies returned

JERUSALEM – Israel warned on Oct 18 the main gateway into Gaza from Egypt would remain shut while Hamas recovered the bodies of former hostages, just as the UN relief chief said the devastated territory needed massive humanitarian support.

The Palestinian mission in Cairo had announced that the Rafah crossing could open as early as Oct 20
, though only for Gazans living in Egypt who wished to return to the territory.

Shortly after, however, Mr Netanyahu’s office said he had “directed that the Rafah crossing remain closed until further notice”.

“Its reopening will be considered based on how Hamas fulfils its part in returning the hostages and the bodies of the deceased, and in implementing the agreed-upon framework,” it said, referring to the week-old ceasefire deal.

Further delays to the reopening of Rafah could complicate the task facing Mr Tom Fletcher, the UN head of humanitarian relief, who was in Gaza on Oct 18. The British diplomat and his team travelled in a convoy of sport utility vehicles to see a wastewater treatment plant in Sheikh Radwan district, north of Gaza City.

“I drove through here seven to eight months ago when most of these buildings were still standing and, to see the devastation – this is a vast part of the city, just a wasteland – and it’s absolutely devastating to see,” he told AFP.

The densely populated cities of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, have largely been reduced to ruins by two years of bombardment and intense fighting between Hamas and the Israeli military.

The Rafah crossing has yet to reopen, but just over a week since the brokering of the truce, hundreds of trucks are rolling in each day via Israeli checkpoints and aid is being distributed.

Digging latrines

Surveying the damaged pumping equipment and a lake of sewage at the Sheikh Radwan wastewater plant, Mr Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a “massive, massive job”.

He said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes who were trying to dig latrines in the ruins.

“They’re telling me most of all they want dignity,” he said. “We’ve got to get the power back on so we can start to get the sanitation system back in place.

“We have a massive 60-day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school.”

According to figures supplied to mediators by the Israeli military’s civil affairs agency and released by the UN humanitarian office, on Oct 16 some 950 trucks carrying aid and commercial supplies crossed into Gaza from Israel.

Relief agencies have called for the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to be reopened to speed the flow of food, fuel and medicines, and Turkey has a team of rescue specialists waiting at the border to help find hostage bodies in the rubble.

Some violence has persisted despite the ceasefire.

Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said on Oct 18 that it had recovered the bodies of nine Palestinians – two men, three women and four children – from the Shaaban family after Israeli troops fired two tank shells at a bus.

Two more victims were blown apart in the blast and their remains have yet to be recovered, it said.

At Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, the victims were laid out in white shrouds as their relatives mourned.

“My daughter, her children and her husband; my son, his children and his wife were killed. What did they do wrong?” demanded grandmother Umm Mohammed Shaaban. “They were little... What did they do wrong? There is no truce.”

The military said it had fired on a vehicle that approached the so-called “yellow line”, to which its forces withdrew under the terms of the ceasefire, and gave no estimate of casualties.

“The troops fired warning shots towards the suspicious vehicle, but the vehicle continued to approach the troops in a way that caused an imminent threat to them,” the military said.

“The troops opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement.”

Hostage remains

Hamas has returned the final 20 surviving hostages it was holding and has begun to hand over the remains of another 28 who died.

On Oct 17 night, it turned over a body identified by Israel as that of Mr Eliyahu “Churchill” Margalit
, a resident of Nir Oz kibbutz who died aged 75 in the Oct 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

“He was a cowboy at heart, and for many years managed the cattle branch and the horse stables of Nir Oz,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a support group founded by relatives of the hostages.

“On Oct 7, he went out to feed his beloved horses and was kidnapped from the stable.”

Mr Margalit was married with three children and three grandchildren. His daughter Nili Margalit, also taken hostage, was freed during the war’s first brief truce in November 2023. AFP