AFP/Web Desk - Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza on Thursday, bringing the total number handed over to 120, the Hamas-run health ministry and Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis said.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Late on Wednesday, Hamas handed over two more bodies to Israel and said it had returned all the remains of deceased captives that it could access.Both Israel and Hamas are complaining to mediators that the terms of this ceasefire deal have been breached.
Hamas has been saying that, since it came into effect, more than 20 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, four were killed in the past 24 hours.
The Israeli military still controls more than half of the Strip, and what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has previously said is that it opens fire to protect its troops on the ground.
The dispute over the return of 19 hostages’ bodies still held by Hamas remains a major threat to this fragile truce.
Two senior advisers to US President Donald Trump have been telling journalists that the mediators “will keep working in good faith” on a mechanism to recover the remains from Gaza.
Recent satellite data examined by BBC Verify suggests that Gaza could be littered with more than 60 million tonnes of debris - and it's not just piles of concrete and twisted metal.
They also contain human remains and unexploded bombs.
"From a safety and humane perspective, the first thing you have to do is make the sites that have been bombed-out safe," says former JCB executive Philip Bouverat.
There follows a process of sorting, separation and crushing the debris. After materials like plastic and steel are removed, the remaining concrete can be ground up and reused.
This will lay the foundations of construction, but building efforts will require the mass import of materials.
"This isn't going to be done by trucks coming across the border. The first thing we need to do is build a deep-water port, because then you can bring thousands of container-loads in", Bouverat adds.
When the sites are cleared, then essential services such as water, sewerage and electricity can be restored, he says.
According to estimates from Unicef, more than 70% of the territory's 600 water and sanitation facilities have been damaged or destroyed, while Gaza has experienced a near-total electricity blackout after Israel cut external electricity.
We've just heard from Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, who has been discussing the steps needed to reconstruct Gaza.
The five-year programme is estimated to cost over $67bn (£49bn), he says, and will cover housing, social services, infrastructure, economy and governance.
Mustafa says national and international partners are expected to support it, adding that Egypt will hopefully convene a "Gaza reconstruction conference" in Cairo next month.
"The Government of Palestine reaffirms that effective governance in Gaza is an essential pillar of recovery and stability," Mustafa tells attendees.