An inside look at an Israeli outpost guarding Gaza’s ‘yellow line’

Spent shell casings, still shiny from recent use, littered the outpost around Shoshani, who said IDF troops had recently found a Hamas weapons stash just beyond the Israeli side of the yellow line

But on Tuesday evening, the militant group handed over the body of the last U.S. citizen hostage, Itay Chen, who it said had been exhumed in Shuja’iyya. And the IDF indicated in a statement on Wednesday that it had received an additional body from Hamas via the Red Cross.

If the body received Wednesday is positively identified as that of the hostages kidnapped in Israel, then six deceased hostages remain in the Gaza Strip. Hamas said it was struggling to recover their bodies amid the destruction of Gaza and restrictions on movement imposed under the ceasefire.

Israeli leaders have accused Hamas of using them as leverage.

Pointing to the yellow line, Shoshani said troops were installing markers and yellow flags to make the temporary border more obvious to civilians.

Among the sea of ​​urban trash that seemed to stretch for miles, the line itself was not visible from the IDF outpost.

NBC News was able to accompany the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, but under conditions that prevent us from using images of military personnel or installations.

Considered as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, negotiated in part by President Donald Trump, the line has become a flashpoint as Palestinians have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of opening fire on people near the border that demarcates more than half the territory.

The United Nations human rights office said in a statement Tuesday that it had “recorded continued daily shooting by the Israeli army of Palestinians near the line of redeployment of Israeli forces in Gaza, which remains unclear on the ground.”

Some Palestinians say they have been unable to return home to the Israeli side of the border. yellow line.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said Wednesday that 241 people had been killed since the ceasefire was established and more than 600 injured.

Both sides have accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire, and on at least two occasions since it took effect on October 10, Israel has responded to alleged violations by launching hundreds of airstrikes across Gaza.

Under the second phase of the agreement, an International Stabilization Force (ISF) will enter Gaza, including areas currently under Israeli control, allowing its forces to further withdraw “according to the standards, stages and timelines related to demilitarization.”

The ISF has not yet been established, but the United States has drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution that, if approved, would authorize it for up to two years, Reuters reported.

Shoshani, however, did not seem convinced that the violence would stop.

“Hamas is a terrorist organization,” he said. “Hamas will continue to try, and this is part of their mentality as a jihadist terrorist organization. »