GAZA CITY, Oct 19 (AFP/APP):Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday that the war in Gaza would not be over until Hamas was disarmed and the Palestinian territory demilitarised.
His declaration came as Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, handed over the remains of two further hostages on Saturday night under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli military said late Saturday that a Red Cross team received the remains of two hostages and the coffins were on their way to its security forces in Gaza.
The issue of the dead hostages still in Gaza has become a sticking point in the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire. Israel has linked the reopening of the key Rafah crossing to the territory to the recovery of the hostages’ remains.
Netanyahu cautioned that completing the ceasefire’s second phase was essential to ending the war.
He said late Saturday that “Phase B also involves the disarming of Hamas and the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip.
“When that is successfully completed — hopefully in an easy way, but if not, in a hard way — then the war will end,” he added in an appearance on right-wing Israeli Channel 14.
Hamas has so far resisted the idea and since the pause in fighting has moved to reassert its control over the Gaza Strip.
