By Adewale Adewale
Many Palestinians have used the pause in fighting to return to their homes to inspect the destruction. The scale of devastation across Gaza has left large, open areas visible to Israeli ground forces.
Gunfire, according to reporters, could still be heard as Israeli troops often open fire at any movement near their positions, particularly in the eastern parts of the enclave.
Medical sources in southern Gaza told Al Jazeera that an Israeli drone strike in Khan Younis has resulted in casualties.
The Gaza Health Ministry has reported that 44 bodies have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours as well as 29 people who were wounded.
The ministry said the remains of 38 of those killed were retrieved from under rubble, adding that a number of victims still remain trapped, with ambulance and Civil Defence crews unable to reach them.
The overall death toll since October 7, 2023, has risen to 67,913 with another 170,134 wounded.
Meanwhile, in what looks like another violation of the agreement, Israel has notified the UN it will only allow 300 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily instead of the 600 stipulated by the ceasefire agreement.
Word of the cut was transmitted to US officials and international aid groups.
Israel has told the UN it will allow only 300 aid trucks – half the agreed number – into the Gaza Strip from Wednesday.
No fuel or gas will be allowed into the war-torn enclave except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure, it said.
Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, confirmed the UN had received the note from COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza.
COGAT said on Friday that it expected about 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily during the ceasefire.
The COGAT note said the restrictions are being taken because “Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says its humanitarian supplies are being blocked from entering Gaza by Israel, calling for the ban on aid to be lifted.
“UNRWA’s humanitarian supplies – food, hygiene kits, medicine, shelter items – are sitting in warehouses outside Gaza, banned from entering by the State of Israel. We have enough food for the entire population for 3 months waiting in Egypt and Jordan,” it said on X.
“There’s no more time to lose – we need a green light to start bringing in UNRWA’s supplies immediately so our teams can deliver them to people in need.
“The ban on UNRWA’s aid must be lifted.”
Under the US-brokered ceasefire at least 600 trucks carrying desperately needed aid should be entering war-battered Gaza each day.
However, Israel continues to block major crossing routes and restrict supplies.
“To my knowledge not all entry points are open to have humanitarian aid inside Gaza, and that’s the main issue right now,” said Christian Cardon, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesperson from Geneva.
“That’s what the ICRC has been calling for in the last few hours – is making sure because of the huge needs that all entry points can be opened.”
Israel had accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement for failing to hand over the bodies of slain captives in Gaza.
The transfer of the remains has been expected to take weeks because of the many challenges of locating and digging out the bodies amid the vast rubble.
However, Red Cross has confirmed the receipt of bodies of slain Israeli captives that will be transferred to Israel. It is unclear how many bodies Hamas handed over in this round.
The Israeli military also says it was informed by the Red Cross that four bodies of slain captives have been handed over to the rescue group and are making their way towards Israeli army positions in Gaza.
Medical sources told journalists the Red Cross has received the bodies of 45 Palestinians from Israel.
The bodies are being examined for the cause of death.
About 2,000 living prisoners were released on Monday from Israel’s notorious prisons as part of the ceasefire deal brokered by the United States, Egypt, Turkiye, and Qatar.
Asked whether former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair could lead a proposed “peace board” to oversee Gaza, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the war-ravaged territory should be “run by Palestinians”.
“Palestine needs to be run by Palestinians and Gaza needs to be run by Palestinians,” Cooper said in an interview with ITV.
President Trump nominated Blair to a proposed “Board of Peace” that would oversee a transitional technocratic government in Gaza as part of his peace plan. Trump later said he’s unsure whether Blair could take part, saying he wanted an “acceptable choice for everybody”.
Cooper was also asked whether she meant that Palestine should be immediately returned to Palestinian control.
“These are the details that are now going to need to be developed and worked through as part of the second phase of negotiations,” she said.
Badr Abdelatty, Egypt’s foreign minister, says 15 Palestinian technocrats have been chosen to administer Gaza with approval from Israel, Hamas and all other Palestinian factions.
“We need to deploy them to take care of the daily life of the people in Gaza, and the Board of Peace should support and supervise the flow of finance and money, which will come for the reconstruction of Gaza,” he said, referring to a board that would govern Gaza and be chaired by President Trump.
Abdelatty said Hamas members welcomed Trump’s plan. They “have no role in the transitional period. They are committed to that. That is why they are working on an administrative Palestinian committee to be deployed in order to take care of the daily life of the people of Gaza”.
For its part, Israel has to comply with a withdrawal from Gaza, allowing a free flow of aid, and the deployment of the administrative committee on the ground to ensure security for civilians, Abdelatty said.
Hamas also must honour its commitments, he added.
US President Donald Trump has said Hamas assured United States mediators it would disarm — and has warned that if it didn’t do so, the US would.
“If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently,” Trump said at a White House press conference.
“I spoke to Hamas and I said, ‘You’re going to disarm, right?’ ‘Yes sir, we’re going to disarm,’ that’s what they told me. They will disarm or we will disarm them.”
Israel has demanded that Gaza be demilitarised and that Hamas hand over its weapons. The group’s leaders, however, have been ambivalent about the issue.
Meanwhile, despite stressing the group must disarm, the US president says he does not object to Hamas’s crackdown on gang members in Gaza.
There have been reports that Hamas has clashed with gangs accused of collaborating with Israel throughout Gaza after the ceasefire.
“They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad, very, very bad gangs,” Trump told reporters. “And they did take them out, and they killed a number of gang members. And that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s OK.”
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