In a shock to nobody, Israel is trying to blow up it’s own ceasefire on the most tenuous basic imaginable – by, as usual, lying. Renowned investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill has warned that Israel is reneging on the peace terms it agreed.
Israel is lying again
Scahill said despite a clear understanding that it would take time to recover bodies from Gaza, Israeli is pretending there was no such agreement.
This all the more important because Israeli is using this lie to justify limiting aid to Gazans:
During Gaza negotiations, Israel understood it would take time to recover all bodies of deceased captives. A specific mechanism for recovering the bodies was agreed. Now Israel is pretending that didn’t happen so it can violate the deal and cut the agreed aid shipments in half.
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) October 14, 2025
Tweeting Wednesday, Scahill reported on the shocking state of Palestinian bodies Israel was returning:
Israel returned the bodies of 45 Palestinians to Gaza. According to medical authorities, their hands & legs were cuffed, some still had blindfolds on and signs of gunshot wounds. Their identities were not provided, just numbers from when they were held in refrigerators by Israel.
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) October 15, 2025
And he commented on Israel’s habit of keeping Palestinian bodies – sometimes for decades:
Under the Gaza deal, Israel is to hand over 15 bodies of Palestinians for *each* deceased Israeli captive. Most media outlets never mention that, for decades, Israel has had a policy of holding the bodies of deceased Palestinians and denying them burial. Hundreds of bodies.
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) October 15, 2025
Independent journalist Jonathan Cook made a similar point:
It’s revealing the importance being placed on Hamas returning the bodies of Israeli captives.
And yet no one cared about Israel’s decades-long refusal to hand back many hundreds of bodies of Palestinians it was holding.
Did their families not need a grave to grieve over?
— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) October 14, 2025
According to Scahill’s Drop Site News colleague Ryan Grim, mediators were very clear that finding bodies would take time. Israel knows this. After all, it has spent two years intensively bombing the area to rubble.
Grim tweeted:
Israel is working extremely hard to blow up this ceasefire, now reneging on promises to surge humanitarian aid by saying Hamas has been to slow in finding all the bodies of hostages (which mediators were clear would take some time, for obvious reasons).
From COGAT, Israel’s…
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 14, 2025
Stopping aid to Gaza
Grim cited an official communication by COGAT, the Israeli authority which regulates aid:
Yesterday, Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
As a result, the political leadership has decided to impose a number of sanctions related to the humanitarian agreement that was reached.
Starting tomorrow, only half of the agreed number of trucks — 300 trucks — will be allowed to enter, and all of them will belong to the UN and humanitarian NGOs, with no private sector involvement.
No fuel or gas will be allowed into the Strip, except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.
However, as Middle East expert Professor Marc Owen Jones point out: A) the return of dead hostages is NOT a condition of aid delivery and B) not allowing aid in was always illegal anyway:
The release of dead hostages is not a condition for the release of aid. The agreement also recognises the need to find info on the dead hostages first – a recognition of the ruins that Gaza is in. Also remember, Israel not allowing in aid is absolutely illegal regardless https://t.co/sxYb0hNB6i pic.twitter.com/pxLAPYtI7H
— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) October 14, 2025
Palestinian body accidentally returned
Legacy media is currently reporting that one of a group of four recovered bodies is not Israeli:
The Israeli military said one of the four bodies handed over by Hamas to Israel overnight was not an Israeli hostage. Hamas is expected to return more bodies today, according to sources. https://t.co/AZ81WWzQj8 pic.twitter.com/7gvnicuxu8
— CNN International (@cnni) October 15, 2025
AFP reported the same:
#UPDATE The Israeli military said Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners was not a former hostage. pic.twitter.com/pOhoHYsVMn
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 15, 2025
As usual, the legacy press seemed to be following the Israeli line:
🟡Following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages.
Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 15, 2025
Though there was at least some acknowledgment by reporters that this had likely been an error made in the fog of war:
🚨 Israeli sources estimate: Hamas unintentionally returned the body of a non-Israeli hostage, with indications suggesting it was a mistake.
An Israeli official adds: “We hope there will be another release of the bodies of hostages today. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel will…
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) October 15, 2025
The Irish News correctly reported the nuances of the peace deal which have been lost in some reporting:
The US-proposed ceasefire plan had called for all hostages – living and dead – to be handed over by a deadline that expired on Monday.
But under the deal if that did not happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand over all as soon as possible.
For its parts, Israel has already killed a number of Gazans since the ceasefire started. It is widely recognised that Hamas have taken a gamble on Trump imposing his will on the genocidal Israeli government.
Featured image via the Canary
