UN chief calls for Security Council mandate for any future Gaza governance
UN chief Guterres has said any governing institution established for Gaza would need a legitimate mandate from the UN Security Council.
Speaking at the World Social Summit in Doha yesterday, Guterres said: “What we believe is that, whatever entity is created in Gaza should have the legitimacy of a mandate from the Security Council.”
He added that local Palestinian police forces would need training, and that a transitional period should ultimately lead to the reunification of Gaza and the occupied West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.
Still not asking what Palestinians want, they have no trust in the PA.
First phase of ceasefire ‘almost over’, but questions remain over next
The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire is “almost over”, but questions remain over the implementation of the next stage, says Middle East and Gulf politics analyst Luciano Zaccara.
Hamas has said locating them amid the rubble of Gaza is proving difficult. Zaccara said, “I don’t think it’s because of a lack of political will; it’s a lack of capacity to find them.”
The analyst added that the next phase is fraught with difficulty, including the disarmament of Hamas and the use of an international stabilisation force to ensure the ceasefire holds.
“I think we have to be optimistic in the sense of the first phase being finalised — all of the bodies returned,” Zaccara noted. “But I’m not very optimistic about how to move to the second phase without a clear mandate from the UN Security Council resolution and without a clear agreement on how this international security force will work and who will be involved.”
There are still 6 (or 7, the 7th one returned hasn't been identified yet) bodies to be found, the 'easy ones' are always found first. Who knows how long it will take to find the last one.
That's what Netanyahu is banking on while the IDF is digging its heels in along the yellow line and continue destruction in the 58% of Gaza Israel now occupies while continuing to restrict aid.
Who are the remaining captives whose bodies are yet to be returned to Israel?
Hamas has said that in several hours it will transfer one of the seven remaining bodies of deceased captives to be returned to Israel.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of the captives, the names of the remaining seven deceased captives are Lior Rudaeff, Meny Godard, Joshua Luito Mollel, Ran Gvili, Dror Or, Sudthisak Rinthalak, and Hadar Goldin.
Five of the captives are Israelis, while two were foreign nationals.
Mollel was a 21-year-old agriculture student from Tanzania who was working on a dairy farm at Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli media reports.
Sudthisak was a 43-year-old agricultural worker who was killed on October 7 near Kibbutz Be’eri, before his body was taken to Gaza, according to reports.
Four of the deceased Israeli captives were also killed in the October 7 attacks, while the fifth, Goldin, was a serving Israeli soldier whose body has been held in Gaza since he was killed in battle in 2014, according to Israeli reports.
