Hamas releases captives but Israel threatens to block Gaza aid

Hamas has released additional bodies of dead captives to Israel on October 14th, after Israel declared that it will reduce the amount of aid lorries permitted to enter Gaza by 50%, as reported by Reuters.

This development that has cast new doubt over US President Donald Trump’s claim of a “historic dawn of a new Middle East” comes amid a momentary pause in hostilities.

The “ceasefire” has revealed itself to be less a moment of peace, but rather a fragile interlude in the Israeli regime’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Israeli officials cited Hamas’s failure to promptly return the bodies of Israeli hostages as the reason for the aid obstruction. On October 14th, Israel said it got the coffins of four dead hostages. The search for bodies would prove difficult considering how much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, leaving up to 9,500 Palestinians missing underneath the ruins.

Hamas, has been severely weakened by years of bombardment, but has swiftly reasserted its presence following the withdrawal of Israeli occupational forces. Verified footage showed armed Hamas fighters executing detained men in a Gaza City square, who were accused of supporting Israel. A Hamas official confirmed the authenticity of the video.

This demonstrates the mirage of peace in Gaza following the ceasefire, where violence continues daily in multiple forms. Whilst Israelis celebrate the return of their loved ones, Palestinians are forced to endure the violent reality that is imposed on them by the destabilising effects of Israeli occupation. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in clashes between Hamas and other armed groups within the enclave since the partial Israeli withdrawal, along with five Palestinians who were killed by an Israeli drone, east of Gaza City.

Trump’s vision for a postwar settlement now confronts the realities of Gaza’s fractured sovereignty alongside the Israeli regime’s reluctancy to abide by a ceasefire. While he has proclaimed that “the war is now over,” Israel maintains that no durable peace is possible without Hamas’s complete disarmament, a demand that the group continues to reject, mirroring the deadlock that Hezbollah and Israel entered following their ceasefire in November 2024. The resulting deadlock exposes the limits of externally imposed frameworks for peace in a landscape defined by the asymmetrical reality of Israeli occupation.

Reuters, Maghrebi.org