Missing bodies of hostages top list of uncertainties as Gaza ceasefire holds

Tel Aviv: The tenuous ceasefire in the two-year Israel-Hamas war was holding on Tuesday even as complex issues remained ahead, a day after widespread jubilation over the return to Israel of the last 20 living hostages held in Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

The list of more immediate questions includes those on when Hamas will return to Israel the bodies of the 28 hostages believed to be dead in Gaza, as well as the health conditions of the released hostages and prisoners.

Only four of the deceased hostages - whose release is also part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump - were turned over to Israeli authorities on Monday.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military identified two of them - Guy Illouz from Israel and Bipin Joshi, a student from Nepal. The two men were both in their 20s when Hamas-led militants took them during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war - Illouz from the Nova music festival and Joshi from a bomb shelter.

Israel said Illouz died of his wounds while being held captive without proper medical treatment, while Joshi was murdered in captivity in the first months of the war, adding that the National Centre of Forensic Medicine would later provide the final cause of death.

The freed Israeli hostages were in medical care on Tuesday, and some families said it would be

weeks before the men could go home.

In the West Bank and Gaza, where hundreds of prisoners were released, several were also taken to hospitals.

Separately, the Israeli military said troops in the northern Gaza Strip had “opened fire to remove the threat” of several people

approaching them on

Tuesday across the “yellow line” and not complying with orders to stop. It didn’t immediately comment on any casualties in the incident.

Part of the ceasefire agreement is that Israel would pull back in Gaza to the so-called yellow line where its forces were in August, before launching their latest offensive on Gaza City in the strip’s north.

Longer-term issues also hang in the balance, including whether Hamas will disarm, who will govern and help rebuild

Gaza, and the overarching question of Palestinian statehood, which is central for Palestinians and many countries in the region.

“The first steps to peace are always the hardest,” Trump had said as he stood with foreign leaders in Egypt on Monday for a summit on Gaza’s future.

He hailed the

ceasefire deal he brokered between Israel and Hamas as the end of the war in Gaza - and the start of rebuilding the devastated territory.

On Tuesday, the UN development agency said the latest joint estimate from the UN, the European Union and the World

Bank is that USD 70 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza.