Israel has said it is preparing for the reopening of Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt to let Palestinians in and out, but set no date as it traded blame with Hamas over violations of a US-mediated ceasefire.
A dispute over the return of hostages' bodies held by Hamas threatens to derail the truce and other unresolved elements of the plan, including disarmament of militants and Gaza's future governance.
Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters Israel remained committed to the agreement and continued to uphold its obligations, demanding Hamas return the bodies of the 19 deceased hostages it had not handed over.
The Islamist faction has handed over ten bodies but Israel said one was not that of a hostage.
The militant group says it has handed over all bodies it could recover.
The armed wing of Hamas said the handover of more bodies in Gaza, reduced to vast tracts of rubble by the war, would require the admission of heavy machinery and excavating equipment into the Israel-blockaded Palestinian enclave.
A senior Hamas official accused Israel of flouting the ceasefire by killing at least 24 people in shootings since Friday, and said a list of such violations was handed over to mediators.
"The occupying state is working day and night to undermine the agreement through its violations on the ground," he said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond. It has previously said some Palestinians have ignored warnings not to approach Israeli ceasefire positions and troops "opened fire to remove the threat".
Later, local health authorities said an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed two people.
The Israeli military said its forces fired at several individuals who emerged from a tunnel shaft and approached troops, describing them as posing an immediate threat.
Israel has said the next phase of the 20-point plan to end the war, a blueprint engineered by US President Donald Trump's administration, calls for Hamas to relinquish its weapons and cede power, which it has so far refused to do.
Hamas has instead launched a security crackdown in urban areas vacated by Israeli forces, demonstrating its power through public executions and clashes with local armed clans.
Twenty remaining living hostages were freed on Monday in exchange for thousands of Palestinians jailed in Israel.
The Gaza health ministry said today Israel had released 30 bodies of Palestinians killed during the conflict, taking the number of bodies it has received since Monday to 120.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has threatened to "go in and kill" Hamas if it keeps killing people in Gaza, in an apparent reference to recent shootings of Palestinian civilians following a ceasefire deal with Israel.
"If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them," Mr Trump said on Truth Social.
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US proposes 20-point peace plan for Gaza
Longer-term elements of Mr Trump's plan, including the make-up of an international "stabilisation force" for the densely populated territory and moves towards creating a Palestinian state, rejected by Israel, have yet to be hashed out.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) would work with international institutions and partners to address Gaza's security, logistical, financial and governance challenges.
An upcoming conference in Egypt on Gaza's reconstruction would need to clarify how donor funds are organised, who would receive them and how they would be disbursed, he told reporters.
Hamas ejected the PA from Gaza in a brief civil war in 2007.
In a statement, Israel's military aid agency COGAT said coordination was under way with Egypt to set a date for reopening the Rafah crossing for movement of people after completing the necessary preparations.
COGAT said the Rafah crossing would not open for aid as this was not stipulated by the truce deal at any stage, rather all humanitarian goods bound for Gaza would pass through Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom after undergoing security inspections.
Italian news agency ANSA quoted Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar as saying Rafah will probably be reopened on Sunday.
With famine conditions present in parts of Gaza, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher told Reuters in an interview yesterday that thousands of aid vehicles would now have to enter Gaza weekly to ease the crisis.
Aid trucks rolled into Gaza and Israel said 600 had been approved to go in under the truce pact.
Mr Fletcher called that a "good base" but nowhere near enough, with medical care also scarce and most of the 2.2 million population homeless.
UNICEF said that in recent days it brought in 250 pallets of supplies including family tents, winter clothes, tarpaulins, sanitary pads and hygiene kits.
It has also distributed more than 56,000 packs of baby food to help 12,500 children for two weeks, UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram said.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza media office, said the aid that had entered since the fighting subsided was a "drop in the ocean".
"The region urgently requires a large, continuous and organised inflow of aid, fuel, cooking gas, and relief and medical supplies," he said.
Much of the heavily urbanised enclave has been rendered a wasteland by Israeli bombardments and airstrikes that have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
The war was triggered by Hamas' 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Coveney among signatories of letter calling for tougher action against 'extremists'
Former Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has lent his support to a letter signed by over 400 former EU ambassadors and senior EU officials urging tougher action against "extremists" on both sides who may attempt to derail the Gaza ceasefire and moves towards an overarching peace settlement in the Middle East.
In a statement adjoining the letter, Mr Coveney said: "The task ahead of the parties and the International Community, including the EU, is formidable but clear - ending once and for all the conflict between Israel and Palestine and establishing two states living side-by-side in peace and security: this opportunity must be seized at all costs."
The letter is the latest in a series of interventions by former EU ambassadors and senior officials, who had been calling for more robust action against Israel for the humanitarian toll of its war on Gaza.
While the letter welcomes the 20-point peace plan by US President Donald Trump, the statement says that Palestinian rights are only "vaguely" mentioned.
The statement says that a permanent peace "must be established on the basis of two functioning States living side by side in peace and security within the June 1967 borders, with any changes being mutually agreed by the Parties."
It calls on the EU to "act robustly against spoilers and extremists on both sides whose actions jeopardise the establishment of a future Palestinian State, with particular focus on ideologues pursuing colonisation and settlement expansion in the West Bank aided and abetted by the Israeli government."
The letter says the EU "should not hold back from imposing restrictive measures on all such recalcitrants whose actions are in clear violation of UN Resolutions, the Peace Plan and the EU-Israel Association Agreement."
The letter has also been supported by Josep Borrell, the former EU foreign policy chief and Margot Wallstrom, a former vice-president of the European Commission.
Mr Borrell stated that peace in the Middle East "must be underpinned by the provisions of the UN Charter with no impunity for those who committed acts in violation of international law".
The letter says the first priority must be "a full and uninhibited resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza in accordance with humanitarian principles and ensuring there will be no further risks of malnutrition and starvation".
It calls on the EU to earmark "significant resources for aid and reconstruction - including under the new EU Pact for the Mediterranean - and work collaboratively and at pace with the UN, most notably with UNRWA which should be immediately permitted by Israel to provide aid to Gaza, together with NGOs and others with tried and tested distribution networks".
The signatories call for critical supplies of food, water, shelter, medical and sanitation items to be delivered urgently and hospitals and utilities "rehabilitated immediately".
Previous letters by former EU ambassadors and senior officials were published in July, August and September this year.
Additional reporting Tony Connelly
