Humanitarian aid has begun arriving in Gaza, and Hamas has handed over more dead Israeli hostages’ bodies, enabling Israel to resume preparations to reopen the Rafah border crossing, Reuters reports.

After several days of tense negotiations, humanitarian trucks reached the Gaza Strip, and Israel restarted preparations to reopen the Rafah crossing.

This was made possible after Hamas handed over additional hostages’ bodies, and this helped ease tensions that threatened the fragile ceasefire.

According to Israeli officials, the militants handed over several Israelis’ bodies within 24 hours, and later two more coffins were delivered.

The handover is part of an agreement providing for the phased implementation of the ceasefire.

Israel has warned that Rafah will remain closed if the process is delayed and is prepared to respond with force if the agreements are violated.