CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Israel restricted aid into Gaza
and kept the enclave's border shut on Tuesday while re-emergent Hamas
fighters demonstrated their grip by executing men in the street,
darkening the outlook for U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the war.
Israel
told the United Nations it will only allow 300 aid trucks into Gaza -
half the agreed daily number - from Wednesday, and that no fuel or gas
will be allowed in, except for specific needs related to humanitarian
infrastructure, according to a note seen by Reuters and confirmed by the
U.N.
Three Israeli officials earlier said Israel had decided to restrict aid and delay plans to open the southern border crossing to Egypt because Hamas had been too slow to turn over bodies of dead hostages. The Islamist militant group has said locating the bodies is difficult.
Trump said on Tuesday Phase Two of the ceasefire deal now begins, but also noted the delay in handing over the deceased.
"THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED! Phase Two begins right NOW!!!" he said in a post on Truth Social.
Meanwhile,
Hamas has swiftly reclaimed the streets of Gaza's urban areas,
following the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops last week.
In
a video circulated late on Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men
with hands tied behind their backs into a Gaza City square, forced them
to their knees and shot them from behind, as dozens of onlookers watched
from nearby shopfronts.
A
Hamas source confirmed that the video was filmed on Monday and that
Hamas fighters participated in the executions. Reuters was able to
confirm the location by visible geographic features.
DELAY IN HANDING OVER BODIES
Trump has given his blessing
to Hamas to reassert some control of Gaza, at least temporarily.
Israeli officials, who say any final settlement must permanently disarm
Hamas, have so far refrained from commenting publicly on the
re-emergence of the group's fighters.
On
Monday the U.S. president proclaimed the "historic dawn of a new Middle
East" to Israel's parliament, as Israel and Hamas were exchanging the
last 20 living Israeli hostages in Gaza for nearly 2,000 Palestinian
detainees and prisoners.
But
so far, Hamas has handed over only four coffins of dead hostages,
leaving at least 23 presumed dead and one unaccounted for, still in the
Gaza Strip.
The
group informed mediators that it will begin transferring a further four
bodies to Israel from 1900 GMT on Tuesday, an official involved in the
operation told Reuters.
Aid
trucks have yet to be permitted to enter Gaza at the full anticipated
rate of hundreds per day, and plans have yet to be implemented to open
the crossing to Egypt to let some Gazans out, initially to evacuate the
wounded for medical treatment.
HAMAS RETURN DEMONSTRATES HURDLES TO SETTLEMENT
[1/6]Palestinians
walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between
Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, October 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ebrahim Hajjaj
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The
highly public return of Hamas to control of Gaza's streets underscores
the hurdles to progressing from the initial ceasefire - Phase One of
Trump's plan - to a permanent settlement that would prevent a new
eruption of fighting.
Gaza residents said Hamas fighters were increasingly visible on Tuesday, deploying along routes needed for aid deliveries.
Palestinian security sources said dozens of people had been killed in clashes between Hamas fighters and rivals in recent days.
Meanwhile,
Israeli drone fire killed five people as they went to check on houses
in a suburb east of Gaza City, and an airstrike killed one person and
injured another near Khan Younis, Gaza health authorities said.
Hamas
accused Israel of violating the ceasefire. The Israeli military said it
had fired on people who crossed truce lines and approached its forces
after ignoring calls to turn back.
A
summit co-hosted by Trump in Egypt on Monday ended with no public
announcement of major progress towards establishing an international
military force for Gaza, or a new governing body.
HAMAS ASSERTS CONTROL
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently maintained that the
war cannot end until Hamas gives up its weapons and ceases to control
Gaza, a demand that the fighters have rejected, torpedoing all previous
peace efforts.
Hamas
sources told Reuters on Tuesday the group would tolerate no more
violations of order in Gaza and would target collaborators, armed
looters and drug dealers.
The group, though greatly weakened after two years of pummelling Israeli bombardment and ground incursions, has been gradually reasserting itself since the ceasefire took hold.
It
has deployed hundreds of workers to start rubble clearing on key routes
needed to access damaged or destroyed housing, and to repair broken
water pipes. Road clearance and security provision will also be needed
for increased aid delivery.
AID AND HOSTAGES
The
ceasefire has stopped two years of devastating warfare in Gaza
triggered by the October 7, 2023 attack in which Hamas-led gunmen killed
around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to
Israeli tallies.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza killed nearly 68,000 people
according to local health authorities, with thousands more feared dead
under the rubble. Gaza's Civil Defence Service said 250 bodies had been
recovered since the truce began.
Swathes
of Gaza are in ruins and the global hunger monitor said in August there
was famine in the territory. Thousands of Gazans have been returning to
homes since the ceasefire, many finding whole streets bombed into dust.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva Writing by Angus McDowall and Peter Graff; Editing by Ros Russell and Mark Heinrich
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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