In a climate of anticipation and great emotion, Israel received the bodies of two more alleged hostages from the Palestinian movement Hamas, while hopes for peace are rekindled in Gaza after the restoration of the fragile ceasefire, following the bloody night between Tuesday and Wednesday with a tragic toll of over one hundred deaths.
The two coffins containing some human remains were delivered by the Red Cross to the army of the Jewish State which escorted them, in a sort of procession, to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv which will handle the identification procedures.
This is a process that could take up to two days. If their identities were confirmed, the bodies of 11 deceased Israeli hostages would remain in the Strip. In the same hours, between pain and anger, the family of Ofir Tzarfati, the young Israeli kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October 2023, then taken to Gaza and finally killed, buried their loved one for the third time.
A small box containing his remains, wrapped in an Israeli flag, was buried before his mother expressed her grief.
From heartbreak to clashes. Moments of strong tension characterized the large demonstration called in the afternoon in Jerusalem by ultra-Orthodox Jews against compulsory military service in Jerusalem.
Over 200 thousand people took to the streets and some journalists were attacked with sticks, stones and bottles. A policeman was injured, while a 15-year-old boy died when he fell from the skyscraper under construction which he had climbed during the protest.
The police are investigating and it is not ruled out that it may have been a suicide. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he met with senior American officials at the Civil-Military Coordination Center, the US Central Command (Centcom) center to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and to facilitate humanitarian aid in Kiryat Gat, central Israel.
“We are working together to achieve the goal agreed with President Trump: disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza, while maintaining our security,” Netanyahu said, while according to Axios, the United States is accelerating the creation of an international force to deploy in Gaza and intends to present a plan in the coming weeks.
The plan would call for a new Palestinian police force — trained and vetted by the United States, Egypt and Jordan — along with troops from Arab and Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Egypt and Turkey. While waiting for this project to materialize, the United Nations has announced that over 24,000 tons of aid have reached Gaza since the start of the ceasefire at the beginning of October.
Although aid volumes have increased significantly compared to the pre-ceasefire period, aid workers still face funding gaps, as well as coordination problems with Israeli authorities.