As the ceasefire in Gaza holds, Hamas has continued to exert extreme influence over the enclave, cracking down on any threat to its authority.

As Gazans seek to return home, Hamas has tightened its grip, engaging in gun battles with clans and gangs, dispatching black-masked security forces to patrol what’s left of the streets and conducting crowd control.

On Tuesday Hamas uploaded a video to its official media channel featuring the execution of eight individuals it accused of being “collaborators and outlaws.”

All eight — kneeling, bound and blindfolded — were shot in the head in the middle of the street as crowds looked on. The video was captioned: “The resistance carries out death penalties against a number of collaborators and outlaws in the city of Gaza.” 

The killings were condemned by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who called them “heinous.”

Germany’s Foreign Ministry called them an “act of terror” against the Palestinian people.

Others inside Gaza as well as in Washington voiced a more forgiving tone, noting that Gaza is also home to no small number of powerful, well-armed criminal clans.

US President Donald Trump, for instance, said, “They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad… and they killed a number of gang members … that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you.”

Trump has said Hamas must disarm but also said the group would be allowed to police for “a period of time.”

Hamas accuses some of the groups it is fighting, such as the Doghmush clan and the Popular Front, of working in concert with Israel and says it will not lay down its arms until the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Aid trucks have been moving into Gaza despite a dispute over the return of hostage bodies that has threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire with Hamas.

Reuters footage showed a convoy of trucks crossing from Egypt into Rafah at dawn, including fuel tankers and vehicles carrying pallets of humanitarian supplies. It was not immediately clear whether the convoy would complete its passage into Gaza as part of the 600 trucks scheduled to enter under the ceasefire plan.

Aid trucks were also seen in the cities of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah later in the day.

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

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

The Israeli military says one of the bodies handed over by Hamas under the ceasefire deal on Tuesday does not belong to any of the hostages held in Gaza.

Hamas delivered four bodies to Israel on Tuesday, following four the previous day, after releasing the final 20 living hostages.

“Following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages.”

“Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages,” the military said.

Israeli authorities have identified the remains of 20-year-old Tamir Nimrodi, one of four bodies returned late Tuesday by Hamas. Nimrodi, who also held German citizenship, was abducted from Israel’s border area during the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023.

According to the Hostage Families Forum, he was killed during Israeli airstrikes while in captivity.

His mother, Herut Nimrodi, had met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin last month with other relatives of hostages to appeal for the release of those still held in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US broadcaster CBS that if the Palestinian militant group Hamas does not disarm under a US-brokered peace plan, “all hell will break loose,” echoing threats by US President Donald Trump to disarm the group by violence if necessary.

Under the 20-point plan put forward by Trump, which in its first phase stipulated the ongoing hostage-prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, the group must disarm and the Gaza Strip, which it has been ruling, must become completely demilitarized.

“We agreed, let’s get the first part done, and now let’s give a chance to do the second part,” Netanyahu said. 

It remains uncertain whether Hamas is ready to lay down its arms.

The group on Tuesday launched a crackdown under which it executed alleged collaborators, while armed clashes have taken place between Hamas’s various security units and armed Palestinian clans in parts of the territory.

Armed police under the control of the territory’s Hamas government have also resumed street patrols in Gaza City following the withdrawal of Israeli troops under the deal.

Trump, however, voiced confidence on Tuesday that disarmament would take place by whatever means.

Responding to a question on whether he was certain it would happen, he said, “We have told them we want them to disarm, and they will disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently, but they will disarm.”

Three Israeli hostages whose bodies were returned by Hamas late on Tuesday have been identified, while a fourth body is still undergoing forensic examination, Israeli media have said.

The three were named as Ouriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levy.

Baruch was 35 when he was abducted at the Nova festival on October 7, 2023, during the attacks by Hamas-led militants in southern Israel.

Levy, who was 53 when taken hostage on the same day, was killed after dropping off a friend at Kibbutz Beeri.

Nimrodi, 18 at the time of the attacks, was a soldier who was seized at a military base at the border to Gaza.

In a statement on Nimrodi, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said he was “killed by IDF bombings in captivity” after being captured alive. 

Israel will allow aid to flow into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday after first threatening to keep it closed if Hamas did not speed up the return of remains of deceased hostages, Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday morning. 

It said the turnaround came after Hamas handed over the remains of four more hostages late on Tuesday, meaning that eight bodies have now been returned from the 28 that had remained in Gaza.

Kan said that “[six] hundred trucks of humanitarian aid will be dispatched (Wednesday) to the Gaza Strip by the UN, approved international organizations, the private sector and donor countries.” The broadcaster did not provide sources for its information. 

Aid organizations have spoken of famine or near famine conditions in the Gaza Strip amid the now paused conflict between Israel and Hamas, with little or no aid reaching the Palestinian territory in recent months.

COGAT, the Israeli military arm that oversees aid flows into Gaza, had said last week it expects 600 trucks of aid to enter the Palestinian territory per day during the ceasefire. 

The Israeli government has reportedly rescinded measures aimed to pressure Hamas into returning the bodies of deceased hostages more quickly.

The measures, which were to include curbs on humanitarian aid and keeping the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt shut, were announced on Tuesday after the remains of only four of 28 dead hostages held in Gaza were handed over.

The Israeli public broadcaster Kan said the turnaround has come after Hamas returned four more bodies on Tuesday night that it said were those of hostages, without naming them.

Identifying the bodies could take up to two days, Kan said.

The Times of Israel has reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Hamas has said it will return four more bodies of deceased hostages to Israel later on Wednesday.

The cancellation of the sanctions means that the Rafah crossing will be reopened, and humanitarian aid will be permitted into Gaza as planned, Kan said.

COGAT, the Israeli military arm that oversees aid flows into Gaza, had said it expects 600 trucks of aid to enter the Palestinian territory per day. 

Islamist militant group Hamas intends to hand the remains of four more deceased hostages to Israel on Wednesday, the Times of Israel reported.

Hamas has already handed over eight other coffins as part of the ceasefire agreement.

The Palestinian militant group had agreed to return the remains of a total of 28 hostages under the terms of the deal.

The Red Cross said on Tuesday that the return of remains might take days or even weeks.

Hamas has said that it needs time to recover the bodies due to the widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the remains of four more hostages handed over by Hamas on Tuesday had reached Israel.

The bodies were handed over to the Red Cross on Tuesday.

“Four coffins of deceased hostages… crossed the border into the state of Israel a short while ago,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

It said that the bodies were being taken for forensic testing.

As a the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to hold, tension remains over the return of deceased hostages remaining in Gaza.

Israel had said it would limit aid to Gaza if the bodies were not returned more quickly.

Under the terms of the agreement, militant group Hamas is to hand the remains of 28 deceased hostages over to Israel, with eight having been released so far.

Hamas has argued that it requires time to recover all the bodies due to the widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, an argument Israel has not accepted.

On Monday, Hamas released the last 20 living hostages and Israel released some 2,000 detainees held in its jails.

Stay with us for more from DW’s coverage of developments in Israel and the Palestinian territories.