Israel launches airstrikes in Rafah over Hamas' delay in returning bodies
發佈日期: 2025-10-19 20:57
TVB News
Israel has carried out airstrikes in Rafah in southern Gaza after accusing Hamas of a "bold violation of the ceasefire", according to media reports. Hamas is accused of attacking factions in Gaza backed by Israel.
This after Israel on Friday hit a bus in Gaza, killing 11 people, including many children. Both sides have accused the other of violating the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Israel received two more bodies of deceased hostages.
Two more bodies said to be deceased hostages arrive in Israel.
Both have been identified. One is Ronen Engel from Kibbutz Nir Oz. The other is a Thai national named Sonthaya Oakkharasri.
For Palestinians waiting for their dead, there are no names. Just numbers.
Doctors and family members struggling to identify them. At the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, a big screen displays bodies and relatives sit in rows, hoping to find any evidence that their loved ones may be among the 135 bodies so far returned by Israel.
Looking at faces, scars, and even items of clothing. Nada Zughra found her father, who went missing during the war.
"I saw on the news photos that reminds me of my father's clothes," she said. "We wanted to see it for real, so we came today and we were able to verify from clothes and marks on his body."
Nasser's head of forensics, Ahmed Dheir, said some cases show evidence of hands cuffed, bruises and gunshots in the chest and the head. Israel has rejected allegations of systematic abuse of detainees.
Israel has also demanded Hamas speed up the delivery of bodies of dead hostages. Hamas says they are hampered by rubble and that some bodies are in areas controlled by the Israel military.
Many aid trucks have made it to Gaza City. Israel said on Saturday that Gaza's sole crossing in Rafah would be closed "until further notice", tying it to Hamas' release of deceased hostages.
This after the Palestinian embassy in Egypt said it would reopen on Monday for people returning to Gaza. Hamas has urged mediators to increase the flow of aid.
The United Nations said almost 340 trucks have delivered humanitarian aid since the ceasefire began.
Israel's Gaza aid agency, COGAT, reports close to 1,700 trucks, including commercial and bilateral deliveries.
The United Nations Development Programme, meanwhile, has launched large-scale operations to remove debris from Gaza City's main roads, in an effort to reopen key transport routes and provide access to essential services such as hospitals, schools, and damaged infrastructure.
"There's about 55 to 60 million tonnes of debris that needs to be removed," said special representative Jaco Cilliers. "The size is if you build a 12-metre wall around Central Park (in New York) and fill that with rubble, that's about the amount of rubble that needs to be removed."
