Israel has decided to open the Rafah border checkpoint between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, allowing humanitarian aid into the enclave after the radical Palestinian group Hamas returned the bodies of four dead hostages, Reuters reported, citing Israeli TV Kan, BTA reported.
The channel added that Israel has canceled planned measures against Hamas that included halving the number of trucks allowed to bring aid to Palestinians in the coastal territory.
The Islamist movement Hamas has informed mediators of the Gaza ceasefire deal that it will hand over the bodies today of four more hostages killed, the Israeli newspaper "Times of Israel" reported earlier.
On Monday, the group handed over the last remaining surviving hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross after 738 days in captivity.
Among the first seven of the 20 prisoners released was Matan Angrest, who also has Bulgarian citizenship. The war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, 2023 with the unprecedented cross-border attack by "Hamas" against Israeli territory, in which, according to Israeli data, 1,219 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken prisoner in the coastal territory.
According to information from the Palestinian health authorities, controlled by "Hamas", more than 67,000 have died since the beginning of the Israeli offensive in the coastal enclave Palestinians. These figures are considered reliable by the United Nations and a number of international organizations, Reuters notes.