"What he's saying: Trump told Axios the search for the body and the identification process was "very tough" because the search teams "had to go through hundreds of bodies" in the area. "It was a hard scene." Trump gave Hamas credit for helping in the search efforts. "They worked very hard to get the body back. They were working with Israel on it. You can imagine how hard it was.""
"What's next: "Now we have to disarm Hamas like they promised," Trump stressed. Between the lines: There's a great deal of skepticism in Israel and the region that Hamas will peacefully disarm, and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will show restraint and let the process play out. But Trump noted that there was also skepticism that every live and deceased hostage would be returned under phase one, as has now happened. Israeli officials thought several bodies would be too difficult to recover."
The Rafah crossing will reopen in limited capacity and the return of the final body removed a key obstacle to moving forward. The identification process required search teams to examine hundreds of bodies, and Hamas assisted in recovery efforts. Phase two centers on disarming Hamas, establishing a new government, and creating a security force for Gaza. Significant regional skepticism remains about peaceful disarmament and whether Israeli leadership will allow the process to proceed without further military action. Phase one unexpectedly returned all hostages and remains, prompting briefings and communications between U.S. advisers and Israeli officials as searches continued.
Read at Axios
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]