GAZA CITY: United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on Wednesday (Oct 15) called on Israel to immediately open all crossings into Gaza for aid delivery, warning that bureaucratic and security delays were worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis.

"It should happen now. We want it to happen immediately as part of this agreement," Fletcher told AFP in Cairo, ahead of a planned trip to the Gaza border.

The UN under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator said access must be “completely unimpeded” to meet the scale of need, adding that US President Donald Trump and other leaders at this week’s Sharm el-Sheikh summit were “unequivocal that we must be allowed to deliver aid at massive scale.”

RAFAH REMAINS SHUT

Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported that the Rafah crossing with Egypt would reopen, but it remained closed by the afternoon. An Israeli government spokesperson did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.

Fletcher is expected to visit the Rafah crossing on Thursday. It is the only border point linking Gaza to the outside world that does not pass through Israel.

“The test of this agreement is not the photos and the press conferences and the interviews,” Fletcher said, referring to the ceasefire declaration signed by Trump and regional leaders on Monday. “The test is that we have children fed, that we have anaesthetics in the hospitals for people getting treatment, that we have tents over people’s heads.”

Israel currently allows humanitarian aid into Gaza through other checkpoints under its control, but aid agencies say bureaucracy and stringent inspections have slowed the delivery of life-saving supplies.

MORE HOSTAGE BODIES RETURNED

Meanwhile, under the Trump-brokered ceasefire plan, Israel and Hamas are continuing to exchange human remains alongside earlier prisoner swaps.

The deal saw the last 20 surviving hostages freed in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

So far, Hamas has handed back the remains of seven of 28 known deceased hostages, as well as an eighth body Israel says was not that of a hostage.

Late on Wednesday, the Israeli military said the Red Cross had collected two additional coffins in northern Gaza, bringing the total number of Israeli bodies recovered to nine. Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed it had handed over two more bodies but warned they would be the last “for now.”

“The Resistance has fulfilled its commitment to the agreement by handing over all living Israeli prisoners in its custody, as well as the corpses it could access,” the group said in a statement. “As for the remaining corpses, it requires extensive efforts and special equipment for their retrieval.”

The warning is expected to increase domestic pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces growing calls from far-right allies to link the flow of aid into Gaza to the recovery of Israeli bodies.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has threatened to cut off supplies if Hamas fails to return the remains of Israeli soldiers still held in the territory.

A HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY

Israel on Wednesday transferred 45 more Palestinian bodies from its custody to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. That brings the total to 90 returned under the ceasefire agreement, which calls for Israel to repatriate 15 Palestinian dead for every deceased Israeli hostage.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed three Palestinians earlier on Wednesday, including two people shot while trying to reach their homes in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighbourhood.

The Israeli military said its forces “identified several suspects crossing the yellow line and approaching troops” in northern Gaza, referring to the demarcation line under the ceasefire deal. It said troops “removed the threat by striking the suspects.”

The war, triggered by Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel, devastated Gaza, displacing nearly the entire population and pushing the enclave into famine conditions.

At the end of August, the United Nations formally declared famine in Gaza, a finding Israel rejected. The restoration of large-scale humanitarian aid is a central part of Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan, which also includes political steps toward stabilising the territory.

A major remaining challenge is Hamas’s disarmament, a demand the group has refused. It continues to tighten control over Gaza’s destroyed cities, while Israel and the United States insist Hamas can have no role in any future Gaza government.