Israel says it will start letting Palestinians leave Gaza through reopened border crossing

JERUSALEM AP Israel on Wednesday announced it will start letting Palestinians leave Gaza through a reopened frontier spanning complying with a U S -backed ceasefire deal even though it also stated that partial remains returned by militants did not match the hostages still in Gaza The missing remains of the two hostages threaten to stall a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in its first phase But by promising to open the Rafah moving across Israel revealed it was moving ahead with parts of the plan The first phase of the plan is supposed to wind down with the return of the two remaining hostages Palestinian militants who appear to be struggling to find the remains amid the rubble of war-torn Gaza disclosed they were searching again on Wednesday Following the exchanges the -point plan calls for creating an international stabilization force forming a technocratic Palestinian executive and disarming Hamas The World Wellness Organization says there are more than sick and wounded people who need to leave Gaza for medicinal care Searching for remains Two hostage bodies are still in Gaza Israeli Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak In a declaration Wednesday the Prime Minister s Office mentioned forensic testing evidenced that remains returned Tuesday did not match either Saraya al-Quds the military arm of Palestinian Islamic Jihad reported its militants were moving to northern Gaza Wednesday morning to search for the remains The group announced on its Telegram channel that the militants were accompanied by workers from the Red Cross Gvili was an Israeli police officer who helped people escape from the Nova music festival on Oct and was killed fighting at another location Sudthisak Rinthalak was an agricultural worker from Thailand who had been employed at Kibbutz Be eri one of the hardest-hit communities in the attack A total of workers from Thailand were abducted the largest group of foreigners to be held in captivity Most of of them were distributed in the first and second ceasefires The Thai Foreign Ministry has noted in addition to the hostages Thais have been killed during the war Hamas has yet to comment on the latest handover or the news about the missing remains Twenty living hostages and the remains of others have been returned to Israel since the ceasefire began in early October Both Hamas and Israel have accused the other of urgent the ceasefire multiple times Rafah to open in coming days The declaration about opening Rafah came from COGAT the Israeli military body charged with facilitating aid to Gaza It revealed Israel would coordinate with Egypt on the exit of Palestinians under the supervision of a mission from the European Union Those wishing to leave Gaza will require Israeli guard approval COGAT commented The ceasefire deal calls for the passing to be opened for diagnostic evacuations and for expedition to and from the strip But an Israeli official who spoke anonymously to discuss operational plans mentioned that all Palestinians who want to exit Gaza will be able to exit through Rafah as long as Egypt agrees to receive them but the journeying won t be open for people wishing to return to Gaza The official explained the EU still had to make various adjustments to logistics before the journeying could open The spanning was sealed off in May when Israel s military invaded the area It was briefly opened in February this year for the evacuation of sick and wounded Palestinians for recovery as part of the previous ceasefire deal Israel sends envoy to meet with Lebanese executives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Wednesday he appointed an envoy to join talks with Lebanese diplomatic and economic personnel Netanyahu s office called the appointment the initial attempt to create a basis for relations and economic cooperation between the two countries It did not say when or where the talks would be held Netanyahu s office reported the appointment would come from the office of his national protection adviser Israeli media identified the envoy as Uri Resnick a former diplomat and the council s deputy director for foreign guidelines Israel and the Lebanon have been in a state of war since Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fought a months-long war that ended in a shaky ceasefire one year ago Palestinian hospital says Israel killed a man in Gaza A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire on Wednesday in Gaza Strip a hospital mentioned marking the latest informed Palestinian fatality in Gaza Israeli forces shot the -year-old man in Gaza City s eastern Zeitoun neighborhood according to the Al-Ahli hospital which received the body Israel s military did not directly respond to request for comment The hospital reported the man was shot while in the safe zone which under the terms of the ceasefire is not controlled by the Israeli military The Gaza Robustness Ministry says more than Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on Oct The ministry sets the total Palestinian death toll from the war over The ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians though it says roughly half of those killed have been women and children The ministry operates under the Hamas-run regime It is staffed by biological professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international district Return of Palestinian bodies in flux The exchanges of the dead have been the central component of the initial phase of the U S -brokered agreement which requires Hamas to return all hostages remains as briskly as attainable Without the return of hostage remains it seemed unlikely that Israel would release more Palestinian bodies on Wednesday Israel has been releasing Palestinian bodies for the remains of each hostage as part of the ceasefire agreement The Gaza Soundness Ministry mentioned the total number of remains received so far is Fitness personnel in Gaza have reported they have only been able to identify a fraction of the bodies handed over by Israel and the process is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits The exchanges have gone ahead even as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating other terms of the deal Israeli agents have accused Hamas of handing over partial remains in specific instances and staging the discovery of bodies in others Hamas has accused Israel of opening fire on civilians and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory The number of casualties has dropped since the ceasefire took effect but leaders in Gaza have continued to overview deaths from strikes while Israel has revealed that soldiers have also been killed in militant attacks The ceasefire aims to wind down the war that was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel which killed about people and saw taken hostage