i24 News – The families of deceased hostages Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi, and Eitan Levi were told this Wednesday morning that the bodies of their loved ones had been identified at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, after they were returned to Israel Tuesday night. Meanwhile, Israel is investigating whether the fourth body that was brought to Israel does in fact belong to a hostage, as concerns arise over whether that is the case.

Hamas handed back the remaining 20 living and first four deceased hostages on Monday in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, leaving no more living hostages in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, which both Israel and Hamas initially accepted, detailed the transfer of all 48 hostages, living and deceased, would be completed by noon on Monday. While all the living hostages were returned, pressure is growing on Hamas and the Israeli government over reaching the exchange of the remains of 20 deceased hostages, as fears arise over the ceasefire falling apart before its second phase begins.

“The Hamas terrorist organization is required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them within the framework of implementing the agreement. We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen hostages, down to the last one,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s office said in a statement Wednesday morning.

Tamir Nimrodi, defined during the war as a hostage whose life was in grave danger, was claimed by the Hostage Families Forum to have been killed by IDF bombings in captivity. Nimrodi was an IDF soldier who served in the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Directorate, Gaza DCO, along with the late Ron Sherman and the late Nick Beiser, who were killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of an IDF attack and whose bodies were recovered and returned to Israel. That Shabbat, Nimrodi had volunteered to replace a friend and was kidnapped a month before his birthday.

After 172 days without a sign of life, Uriel Baruch’s family learned that he had been murdered on October 7 and kidnapped as a hostage to the Gaza Strip. He left behind his wife Racheli, two children, his parents, and three siblings.

Eitan Levy was driving a family friend from central Israel to Kibbutz Be’eri. As he was returning, the rocket attack began. Levy called his sister and told her about the events. While driving, while his sister was on the phone, terrorists took control of his car. He managed to utter “Oh my God,” and immediately afterward, they heard only shouts of “Allahu Akbar” and bursts of gunfire.

At first, he was declared missing, and two weeks later his family was informed that he had been kidnapped after his phone was located in Gaza. In December, after intelligence information was received following photos and videos, the family was informed that Levy had been murdered and his body was being held in Gaza.

Aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel resumed preparations to open the main Rafah crossing after a dispute over the return of the bodies of dead hostages that had threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Israel had threatened to keep Rafah shut and reduce aid supplies because Hamas was returning bodies too slowly, showing the risks to a truce that has stopped two years of devastating warfare in Gaza and freed all living hostages held by Hamas.

However, the militant group returned more Israeli bodies overnight, and an Israeli security official said on Wednesday preparations were under way to open Rafah to Gazan citizens, while a second official said that 600 aid trucks would go in.

DISPUTE OVER RETURN OF HOSTAGE BODIES

Hamas returned four bodies confirmed as dead hostages on Monday and another four bodies late on Tuesday, though Israeli authorities said one of those bodies was not that of a hostage.

The dispute over the return of bodies still has the potential to upset the ceasefire deal along with other major issues that are yet to be resolved.

Later phases of the truce call for Hamas to disarm and cede power, which it has so far refused to do. It has launched a security crackdown, parading its power in Gaza through public executions and clashes with local clans.

Longer-term elements of the ceasefire plan, including how Gaza will be governed, the make-up of an international force to take over there and moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state have yet to emerge.

Twenty-one bodies of hostages remain in Gaza, though some may be hard to find or recover because of destruction during the conflict. An international task force is meant to find them.

The deal also requires Israel to return the bodies of 360 Palestinians. The first group of 45 was handed over on Tuesday and the bodies were being identified, said Palestinian health authorities.

AID ENTRY AND BORDER CROSSING

The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with nearly all inhabitants driven from their homes, a global hunger monitor saying famine was present in the enclave and health authorities overwhelmed.

“Our situation is utterly tragic. We went back to our homes in the al-Tuffah neighborhood and found there are no homes at all. There is no shelter. Nothing,” said Moemen Hassanein in Gaza City, with tents and shanties behind him.

Reuters video showed a first group of trucks moving from the Egyptian side of the border into the Rafah crossing at dawn on Wednesday, some tankers carrying fuel and others loaded with pallets of aid.

However, it was not clear if that convoy would complete its crossing into Gaza as part of the 600 trucks that were due to enter the enclave on Wednesday – the full daily complement required under the ceasefire plan. Aid trucks entered Gaza through other crossings.

“Humanitarian aid continues to enter the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and other crossings after Israeli security inspection,” the Israeli security official said.

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported that Wednesday’s aid deliveries would include food, medical supplies, fuel, cooking gas and equipment to repair vital infrastructure.

Underscoring the political challenges facing the truce, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an opponent of the ceasefire plan, said on X that the aid delivery was a “disgrace.”

“Nazi terrorism understands only force, and the only way to solve problems with it is to wipe it off the face of the earth,” he added, accusing Hamas of lies and abuse over the return of hostages’ bodies.

Rafah is due to be opened to Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza either entering or exiting the enclave. But those awaiting medical evacuation told Reuters they had not yet received notification to prepare for travel.

The Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, is preparing to operate the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which it previously did with EU assistance. Israel closed the crossing in 2007 after Hamas took over the enclave, but later allowed some movement through it under an agreement with Egypt.

VIOLENCE IN GAZA

Several other Palestinian factions present in Gaza have backed the days-long Hamas security crackdown as it battles local clans that had tried to take over areas of the territory during the conflict.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the groups backing the Hamas crackdown, described the clans being targeted as “hubs of crime.”

The ceasefire envisaged Hamas initially restoring order in Gaza and US President Donald Trump, who brokered the deal, endorsed Hamas’ crackdown on rival gangs, while warning it would face airstrikes if it did not later disarm.

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemned the public executions after a video, authenticated by Reuters, showed masked gunmen shooting dead seven bound, kneeling men in a Gaza street.

Israeli forces inside Gaza have pulled back to what the truce deal calls a yellow line just outside the main cities. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said it would immediately enforce any violation of the line.

BERLIN — At a hummus restaurant in Berlin’s leafy neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg, war has come knocking many times over the last two years. Recently, it came with the threat of closure.

Jalil Dabit, a Palestinian, and Oz Ben David, an Israeli, have run the business together for 10 years. The last two saw Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the devastating war that ensued in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and largely reducing the enclave to rubble.

Dabit and Ben David named their restaurant Kanaan — a Hebrew and Arabic word for the ancient land they both call home, before it was known as Israel or Palestine.

They have a mission beyond bringing the best hummus to Berlin. They turned Kanaan into a local symbol of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, organizing free programs that teach about cooking and prejudice. One project joined Palestinian refugees who fled Gaza during the war together with members of Berlin’s Israeli community to cook under one roof. A rainbow sign outside the restaurant reads, “Make hummus not war.”

But in August, the partners issued an emergency plea.

“Kanaan is facing closure,” they announced to customers. “The year 2025 was tough. War, economic uncertainty and a sharp drop in revenue have brought us to a point where we cannot continue without your help. If nothing changes in the next two weeks, we will have to close Kanaan.”

Dabit and Ben David have continuously fended off the Gaza war’s encroachment on their business. On Oct. 7, 2023, they closed for six days. Ben David said he felt driven to quit after his friend was killed and his family members hid in their safe room from the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Dabit coaxed him back from despair.

The unlikely duo supported each other even as their message cost them Israeli and Palestinian friends from home. Ben David grew up in Ariel, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Dabit comes from Ramle, a mixed city in central Israel where his family has lived for hundreds of years. He had 16 family members in Gaza when the war broke out, all of whom since escaped to Australia.

In Berlin, their restaurant has been tested by tensions over the war. Both far-right and far-left factions have protested the “normalization” of an Israeli and a Palestinian working together.

In July 2024, Kanaan was vandalized after hosting a Jewish-Muslim brunch. The attackers shattered wine glasses, destroyed furniture, spread excrement and left hate messages throughout the restaurant. With nothing stolen, police suspected the vandalism to be motivated by hate. Months later, an Israeli woman was assaulted by four people while wearing Kanaan’s signature pin, which depicts a heart divided between the Israeli and Palestinian flag. One of the attackers shouted “Israel muss weg,” or “Israel must go,” while they knocked the woman to the ground and kicked her.

More recently, Ben David said they faced a downturn in revenue. Their customers were dwindling and they struggled to keep up with rising costs and high rent. He reached out to an email list of previously loyal customers, asking for feedback about why they weren’t returning. The responses weren’t about the food.

One answer came back clearly: People couldn’t figure out how to place Kanaan’s message of dialogue and coexistence. “‘We don’t understand if you are pro-Israel or pro-Palestine.’ That’s something that we heard a lot,” said Ben David.

Another response came down to fatigue with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After reading and watching news about the war for two years, when they finally had a break, many customers said they’d rather go out for sushi or Italian food.

Two weeks from bankruptcy, Ben David and Dabit tried to explain the restaurant’s significance to their community. “Kanaan was never just a restaurant,” they wrote on social media. “It’s a place where Israelis and Palestinians work together, where all guests eat together, where food is more than just enjoyment. … It’s a bridge between people.”

The following weeks saw a stunning change in fortune. Kanaan filled up again with a 300% increase in diners. Catering orders poured in, while many customers bought vouchers for the future. The support wasn’t just financial, said Dabit.

“When people react to our call, they give me — not just Kanaan, but also Oz and me — they give us the energy to continue,” he said. “They show us that we’re doing something right, even though it’s a really bad situation, but we’re doing something right.”

For now, the restaurant can keep going. And the partners have new inspiration for their persistent hope: Back home, the first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas saw the last 20 surviving Israeli hostages returned in exchange for 1,968 Palestinian prisoners on Monday, as scenes of ecstatic reunions and continued grief washed over Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

Dabit and Ben David said they were filled with joy and relief, mixed with yearning for a lasting peace and reconciliation.

“The ceasefire feels like a breath of fresh air after so much suffering,” said Dabit. “It’s bittersweet, but it’s an opportunity for change. This is our chance to write a new narrative for our future.”

In Kanaan’s backyard, the Gaza war triggered a sharp rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents across Germany. It also drove a fraught debate over Germany’s relationship with Israel, which became central to German national identity after the Holocaust. Unlike other European countries that have recently recognized a Palestinian state, including the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, Germany has declined to do so.

Pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin have also led to government crackdowns. In April, German immigration authorities ordered the deportation of three European nationals and one U.S. citizen over their alleged activity at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Three of the orders cited Germany’s responsibility toward Israel — a doctrine known as the country’s “Staatsräson,” or “reason of state.” (All the protesters have appealed and won measures for interim relief.)

Dabit and Ben David plan to shape the conversations about Israelis, Palestinians, Jews and Muslims in Germany through projects beyond their restaurant. On Nov. 5, they will publish a cookbook titled “Kochen ohne Grenzen,” or “Cooking Without Borders.” The book collects their recipes while also sharing their kitchen with Berliners from around the world — including rabbis, imams and priests who cook together.

During a recent phone call between Dabit in Ramle and Ben David in Berlin, they jokingly interrupted each other’s stories about their families with accusations of “propaganda.” Turning serious, Dabit said, “I’m optimistic because I see the beauty of every person. If I couldn’t see the beauty, I couldn’t be with you for 10 years, Oz.”

“That’s true,” replied Ben David. “You managed to take a settler from Ariel and make him your best friend, like your brother.”

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