Hamas delivers dead prisoner in bid to preserve ceasefire as political differences multiply

Hamas delivered the body of an Israeli who died in captivity in Gaza to the Red Cross on Tuesday. Earlier, the organization announced that it would deliver the body alongside Islamic Jihad after locating and recovering it in central Gaza. 

The move, sources told Mada Masr, comes as part of a bid to preserve the fragile ceasefire that Israel’s military has increasingly challenged in recent days as efforts to resolve outstanding political issues falter. 

Hamas said that its military wing and Islamic Jihad will hand over the body of one of the people taken captive on October 7, 2023 after it was recovered from the central Gaza Strip on Monday. 

The return of all prisoners — both those alive and dead — was a core part of the 20-point proposal for an end to the war and a post-war governance plan put forward by the US and Israel at a joint press conference at the end of September. 

Hamas agreed to the handover of the prisoners, while expressing its reservations regarding the post-war governance plan, describing it as eroding Palestinian sovereignty. 

While Hamas handed over all living prisoners immediately with the agreement on the initial phase of the deal in October, the movement, working alongside international agencies, has been able to recover the bodies of 25 prisoners who were killed and buried beneath the rubble during Israel’s two-year assault on the strip. 

Following Tuesday’s recovery, only two bodies remain in the strip.   

Handing over prisoners, however, means that Hamas is ceding its leverage in talks, a fact it acknowledged in its agreement to the US proposal, which it framed as done in order to bring an end to the genocidal war on the people of Gaza.

Nonetheless, Hamas remains concerned about the fate of Gaza and its own survival as steward of safety in the strip, especially as Israel has abetted chaos by backing armed groups in Gaza, and as the Palestinian Authority remains ill-equipped to assume control of the strip. 

Both the Hamas source and an Egyptian official who spoke to Mada Masr said Hamas expressed in a meeting with mediators that it wants about 100 of its fighters who are trapped in tunnels under Rafah to be released in return for the delivery of the remaining bodies of Israeli prisoners.

The matter was conveyed to the Israeli government, the Hamas source said, which rejected the proposal. Israel said it is prepared to resume the war if the bodies are not handed over, they added. 

The Hamas source said that the movement does not want to disrupt the ceasefire, and, in response to Israel’s refusal to negotiate, it has remained committed to handing over the other bodies.

Mediators and parties to the ceasefire have been in talks about the trapped fighters since October, when Hamas said that it had lost contact with them. Skirmishes between the trapped fighters and Israeli forces occupying Rafah have broken out on several occasions, which Israel has used to justify a bombing campaign that killed over 100 Palestinians across the strip. 

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it killed 11 fighters who tried to escape from the tunnel, and it took another six of them into custody.

The Hamas source said that effort is ongoing to secure the release of fighters still trapped in the tunnel, noting that the US has pledged it will press for their release, provided the ceasefire deal is not obstructed.

With the fate of the fighters and broader plans for post war governance being negotiated, Israel continues to violate the ceasefire. 

Last week, Israel launched two intensive waves of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip and advanced beyond the “yellow line,” which marks the withdrawal point for Israeli troops agreed to in the ceasefire negotiations that Israel has physically reinforced with yellow-painted cement blocks in some areas.

Israel has also refused to allow the delivery of agreed-upon quantities of aid and goods, subjecting Palestinians to worsening winter weather amid a shortage of fuel, medicines and food, and without the tools and equipment needed to restore severely damaged water and waste treatment infrastructure. Officials and experts have flagged the risk of disease spreading as conditions worsen. 

The US is also yet to establish a resolution with parties to the ceasefire on the questions of the Gaza Strip’s civil and security governance — matters that were left open pending further negotiation under the initial ceasefire deal. 

The US secured United Nations Security Council authorization to establish the Board of Peace and an international stabilization force to enter the strip but is yet to announce steps to implement the plan. 

Palestinian bodies, meanwhile, have rejected the UNSC resolution, which they said amounts to placing the strip under an “international guarantorship” that sidelines Palestinian self-determination and separates the strip from the rest of the Palestinian territories.