US denies Hamas violating deal as it tries to keep fragile peace plan on track

Washington: The Trump administration has denied Hamas is violating the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, and is gently pushing back against Israeli concerns about the slow release of the remaining dead hostages as it tries to keep its fragile peace plan on track.

Two senior US advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it would be impossible for Hamas to quickly find and retrieve all the bodies buried under the rubble, given the scale of destruction. They also stressed the complexities of the situation in Gaza and that disarming Hamas would be a slow process.

“We’re not at a point yet where anyone feels the agreement has been violated,” one of the senior advisers told reporters on a briefing call organised by the White House. “It’s complicated, but we’re all committed to getting to the right place.”

They said the agreement was to return the 20 living hostages, and that Hamas “did honour that”. There was now a process in place to find the rest.

“I know the sentiment in Israel is always ‘they can do more’,” the adviser said. “What we basically say to the Israeli side who think ‘they can do more’ is: give us whatever intelligence you’re hearing, you’re seeing, let’s pass it over and let’s push them.”

The other senior adviser spoke of the difficulties of recovering the dead hostages due to the extent of the damage in the territory and the lack of suitable excavation equipment.

“The entire Gaza Strip has been pulverised. It looks like something out of a movie. There’s very little buildings left standing,” the adviser said.

“It is so bad there, it is hard to imagine how people can even walk to the food distribution centres. That’s how difficult it is. The roads are unpassable. There’s debris everywhere, 50, 60, 70, 80 feet in the air.”

Promising that no one would be left behind, the adviser said a program might be established to reward people for helping locate and retrieve the rest of the bodies. Other governments were also helping.

The Israeli military said on Thursday (AEDT) that it had collected two more bodies of hostages from the Red Cross. The bodies of nine of the 28 remaining deceased hostages have been returned.

Ten bodies were handed over to Israel in total, but one was found not to be a hostage. Forensic tests showed it did not match any of those held in Gaza, and there was no immediate word on who it was.

Hamas said it had returned all the bodies it could find and that retrieving the rest would require “significant efforts and specialised equipment”.

That has caused significant consternation in the Israeli government and among the dead hostages’ families. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s office released a statement on Wednesday (Israel time) threatening to resume fighting and annihilate Hamas if the militant group did not fulfil all aspects of the truce.

“If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in co-ordination with the United States, will resume fighting and act to achieve a total defeat of Hamas, to change the reality in Gaza and achieve all the objectives of the war,” the statement said, as reported by The Times of Israel.

US President Donald Trump struck a similar tone in a call to CNN, saying Israeli forces would “return to those streets as soon as I say the word” if Hamas did not honour the agreement.

“If Israel could go in and knock the crap out of them, they’d do that,” Trump said, adding that “what’s going on with Hamas – that’ll be straightened out quickly.”

According to Axios, Israeli intelligence shared with the US suggests that Hamas has access to more bodies and has not been doing enough to recover and return them. The Gaza deal could not move into the next phase until that changed, Axios reported, citing two Israeli officials and one US official.

But on the briefing call in Washington, the two senior US advisers said the plan was already moving into its second phase. One adviser said that although the peace plan mandated a demilitarised Gaza, it was “very, very, very hard” to get that done.

“It’s not realistic to think everyone’s just going to walk in, drop their arms and say, ‘Hey, there you go’,” they said. A lot of Hamas fighters feared retribution from people in Gaza. “It’s a very complex dynamic.”

They also said that while aid would go everywhere, no rebuilding money would go into areas controlled by Hamas. Rebuilding would begin in places that had been “totally cleared”, one person said, citing Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

“No one’s forcing any Gazans to leave. There are Gazans who I think have left because the living conditions are terrible,” one of the senior advisers said.

In exchange for the remaining hostages, Israel freed about 2000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Monday. The deal also requires Israel to return the bodies of 360 Palestinians.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday that it had received 45 more bodies from Israel, bringing the total to 90. A forensics team examining the remains said they showed signs of mistreatment.

The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with nearly all inhabitants driven from their homes, a global hunger monitor confirming famine and health authorities overwhelmed.

“Our situation is utterly tragic. We went back to our homes in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood and found there are no homes at all. There is no shelter. Nothing,” said Moemen Hassanein in Gaza City, with tents and shanties behind him.

With Reuters, AP