US officials in Israel to press truce forward as first phase of ceasefire wanes

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : The last ceasefire agreement in January 2025 fizzled after the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, with Israel launching a wave of airstrikes over Gaza.
50% : Israel on Monday returned the remains of 15 Palestinians to Gaza in the latest step forward for a US-brokered ceasefire, as a top White House envoy met Israeli leaders to discuss the next stages of the fragile agreement.
49% : Residents now say that Israel has ordered the demolition of 14 structures in the village, including the community centre, greenhouse and family homes.
45% : The village was founded in the 1950s by traditionally nomadic people, known as Bedouin, who settled there just after being uprooted from the Negev desert during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.
44% : For each Israeli hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians.
42% : At the time, mediators were unable to bring Hamas and Israel to the table to negotiate troop withdrawal and future governance of the strip.
41% : Israel returned the bodies after Palestinian militants released the remains of a hostage on Sunday.
41% : Israel's military had long determined that he had been killed, based on evidence found in the tunnel where his body was taken, including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes.
41% : Two decades later, Umm Al-Khair fell under Israeli security control when Israel captured the West Bank.
39% : Settler attacks, residents say, began in the 1980s, after Israel built the settlement of Carmel close to Umm Al-Khair.
38% : His remains had been the only ones left in Gaza predating the current war between Israel and Hamas.
37% : The 23-year-old was killed two hours after a ceasefire took effect in that year's war between Israel and Hamas.
36% : Bimkom, an Israeli rights group that focuses on urban planning, says that between 2016 and 2021 Israel rejected 99% of Palestinian requests for building permits in Area C of the West Bank, where Umm al-Khair is located.
34% : Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas-led attack on October 7 2023 on southern Israel, which sparked the war, and 251 people were kidnapped.
31% : The handover came after Israel on Sunday confirmed it had received the remains of Hadar Goldin, a soldier killed in the Gaza Strip in 2014, closing a painful chapter for the country.
28% : Israel says the structures were built illegally.

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