Hamas hands over captive body as Israel continues attacks in Gaza

Israel has offered to allow hundreds of Hamas members trapped in Israeli-occupied Gaza safe passage in return for the body of an Israeli soldier killed in 2014, according to Israeli media.

Around 200 Hamas fighters are believed to be in tunnels underneath Rafah, which is behind the so-called Yellow Line.

The two sides are negotiating their fate via mediators, Kan reported on Wednesday.

The Israeli government had initially refused to allow the men to cross into Hamas-controlled Gaza.

It is now reportedly open to allowing them safe passage in exchange for the body of Hadar Goldin, who was killed during Israel's invasion of Gaza in 2014.

Israel has received the body of a captive from the Red Cross in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Wednesday night.

The captive's coffin, handed over to the military and internal security service, "will be transferred to Israel, where it will be received with a military ceremony" before being sent to a forensic facility for identification procedures, the statement said.

(AFP and TNA staff)

The US will share a draft resolution on President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza with the 10 elected members of the United Nations Security Council later on Wednesday, a US official said.

Representatives for Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates will join the US, "showing clear regional support," the official added.

Israel and Hamas agreed a month ago to the first phase of Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza: a ceasefire in their two-year war and captive-release deal.

The United States has drafted a UN Security Council resolution that would approve a two-year mandate for a Gaza transitional governance body and an international stabilisation force in the Palestinian enclave, according to the text seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear if any changes have been made to the draft that will be shared with the 10 elected Security Council members.

A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the US, Britain or France to be adopted.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that the Red Cross had taken possession of the remains of a captive from Gaza as part of the ongoing ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

"According to information provided by the Red Cross, a coffin of a deceased hostage has been transferred into its custody and is on the way to [Israeli] troops in the Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.

Before this evening's handover, Hamas had returned 21 of the 28 deceased captives under the 10 October ceasefire agreement.

(AFP and TNA staff)

The Israeli government has issued tenders for a record number of new housing units in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank in 2025, according to Israeli NGO Peace Now.

The Housing Ministry on Tuesday announced plans for the construction of more than 350 new units in a settlement north of Jerusalem.

This takes the total number of tendered units this year to 5,667, around 50 percent higher than the previous record high in 2018.

The ministry plans to build 342 units in five new compounds and 14 houses for families of reservists in the Geva Binyamin settlement.

If the units are built, it would enable another 25,000 settlers to live in the West Bank.

In August, it issued tenders for 4,030 units in Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel.

An Israeli air strike in south Lebanon killed one person and wounded another earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, days after Israel warned it would intensify its attacks on Hezbollah.

In a statement, the ministry said the deadly "Israeli enemy strike" had hit a vehicle in Burj Rahal.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the attack took place near a school, causing "panic and terror" among the students.

The Israeli military said it had killed Hussein Jaber Dib, accusing him of belonging to Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force.

Israel has bombed Lebanon hundreds of times despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, and has escalated its attacks in recent days.

(AFP and TNA staff)

Turkey's MIT intelligence agency chief met with Hamas' negotiating team head, Khalil Al-Hayya, on Wednesday, and they discussed the path to be followed in implementing the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire plan, according to Turkish security sources.

They said that MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin met with the Hamas delegation in Istanbul, and they also discussed steps to ensure the smooth operation of the ceasefire process and how to overcome existing problems.

Israeli settlers set fire to olive trees in the plain of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, damaging several fruit trees, causing losses to farmers as attacks on the occupied region continue.

Israel has bulldozed the main road to the northern entrance of the Tulkarem camp amid its siege of the camp, which has entered its 283rd day, Wafa reports.

Israeli forces also prevented displaced residents from returning, sealing all entry points with concrete blocks and gates and turning homes into military posts.

The forces also caused further damage to infrastructure that was already destroyed by Israeli forces before.

Three Palestinians, including two children, have been arrested after Israeli forces raided Tubas in the occupied West Bank. 

The head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Society's group office in the region, Kamal Bani Odeh, said Israeli forces detained 17-year-old Abdulqader Dababreh and 16-year-old Ibrahim Khalil. They also arrested 37-year-old Azzat Bisharat in the nearby town of Tammun.

Hamas's armed wing said it would hand over the remains of another captive on Wednesday as required under the US-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel in Gaza.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades "will hand over the body of an Israeli prisoner found in the Shujaiya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, at 9 PM Gaza time" (1900 GMT), the group said on its Telegram channel.

An elderly Palestinian man was injured after Israeli settlers attacked residents in Masafer Yatta south of Hebron.

Activist Osama Makhamara told Wafa the settlers left bruises and contusions on 75-year-old Mahmoud Mousa an-Najjar after attacking residents' homes. The Palestinian was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The settlers also destroyed an-Najjar's furniture and items and wrote racist slogans on the walls of his home. 

Two Palestinians, in separate incidents, were killed in central Gaza on Wednesday by Israeli forces, claiming the two had approached the soldiers "in a manner that posed an immediate threat".

The army claimed in a statement that the men were allegedly crossing the ceasefire's yellow line near Israeli positions and were "eliminated".

As of November, over 9,250 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in Israeli prisons, Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups revealed.

Among the figures, 1,242 sentenced prisoners are held, while 49 women are currently imprisoned, and a further 350 prisoners are children.

The number of administrative detainees rose to 3,368, while the number of "unlawful combatants" reached 1,205.

Israeli settlers razed dozens of olive trees in the West Bank town of Qaryut, south of Nablus, Palestinian media reported.

Activist Bashar al-Qaryuti told the Palestinian Wafa agency said that residents discovered the destruction ater arriving at their land in the eastern plain after being granted permission to enter and harvest their olives.

Settler violence, property damage and theft is increased dramatically during this year's olive harvest season.

More than 150 attacks have been recorded since October.

Former top Israeli army lawyer Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi will be detained for at least two more days after she was arrested over a leaked video appearing to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee.

Tel Aviv Magistrates Court made the ruling.

The former lawyer was detained after she had authorised the leak of the video in an attempt to 'counter false propaganda' against the army and the abuse scandal.

At least 68,875 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, as 170,679 have been wounded by Israeli attacks across Gaza.

Hospitals in Gaza have received three Palestinian bodies and two people who have been injured over the past 24 hours.

The toll does not include the thousands missing or trapped under the rubble from Israeli attacks.

Gaza's Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday said it had received the bodies of 15 Palestinian prisoners under the US-brokered ceasefire exchange deal.

"The tenth batch of the bodies of Palestinian martyrs has arrived at Nasser Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip, numbering 15 martyrs," the hospital said in a statement, noting that 285 bodies were received under the agreement in total.

The Israeli military targeted a car in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese and Israeli media reports, despite a ceasefire signed in November 2024.

The Israeli army did not comment on the attack, which happened in the town of Burj Rahal.

Rachel Accurso, also known as Ms Rachel, donned a dress embroidered with artwork made by children from Gaza at Glamour's Women of the Year Awards in New York.

The drawings were stitched with the artist's name in Arabic, telling Brooks and Grace Ann Nader that she was "thinking about all the little ones there and what we can do for them".

Ms Rachel was honoured on Glamour's Women of the Year list.

Today, Ms.Rachel accepted Glamour Magazine ‘Women of The Year’ by wearing a custom dress with drawings from children from Gaza. pic.twitter.com/f5NmbSkgu2

— WearThePeace (@WearThePeaceCo) November 5, 2025

Israel has rejected 23 requests from nine aid agencies to bring in life-saving aid into the Gaza Strip since the 10 October ceasefire, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) revealed.

Aid, including nearly 4,000 pallets of tents, sealing kits, bedding and blankets, has been rejected, while millions of items are stuck in Jordan, Egypt and Israel, waiting to be approved.

Hospital officials in Gaza said they have received the bodies of 15 Palestinians from Israel.

The announcement, made by officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, brings the number of Palestinian bodies returned to Gaza to 285.

Hamas has returned the remains of 21 captives to Israel under the ceasefire. For each Israeli captive returned, Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians.

Fewer than half have been identified. Forensic work is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits in Gaza. The Health Ministry there posts photos of the remains online, in the hope that families will recognise them.

Israel's diaspora minister on Wednesday slammed New York's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as a "Hamas supporter" and called on the city's Jews to move to Israel following his victory.

"The city that once stood as a symbol of global freedom has handed over its keys to a Hamas supporter," right-wing Minister of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, wrote on X.

He went on to say that Mamdani's views were "not far from those of the jihadist fanatics who, 25 years ago, murdered three thousand of its own people," referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda on New York and Washington.

Mamdani, 34, has been a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian cause and has pledged to make New York more affordable. He will become the city's first Muslim mayor when he takes office in January.

Israeli forces and settlers have been continuing their attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces carried out raids in the al-Far'a refugee camp south of Tubas, including the city itself, where schools have been suspended and in the Askar refugee camp east of Nablus, while also closing military checkpoints in the Jordan Valley.

The forces have also launched widespread detention campaigns, having detained dozens of Palestinians in the Hebron Governorate.

Two Palestinian workers were also injured after being attacked by Israeli forces north of occupied Jerusalem and demolishing homes east of the region.

Over 25,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Football Association (FA) to cancel Aston Villa's Europa League match against Maccabi Tel Aviv and to ban Israel from participating in global competitions over its war on Gaza.

The petition, launched by the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was handed to the FA at Wembley Stadium by the platform's director, Lewis Backon.

West Midlands Police have classed the match as "high risk" over safety concerns over  potential protests outside Villa Park, following demonstrations at Israel’s recent World Cup qualifiers in Oslo and Udine.

Today we handed in a petition signed by 25,000 people to the FA calling on them to cancel the match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aston Villa.

Teams from a state responsible for genocide and committing apartheid shouldn’t play in international football. pic.twitter.com/H3uCbosa6v

— Palestine Solidarity Campaign (@PSCupdates) November 4, 2025

Israel confirmed Wednesday that the remains handed over by Hamas the day before belonged to Israeli-American soldier Itay Chen, who was seized during the October 2023 attacks.

The remains were returned by Hamas on Tuesday evening as part of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump.

"Following the completion of the identification process... IDF representatives informed the family of the fallen [captive], Staff Sergeant Itay Chen, that their loved one has been returned to Israel and positively identified," the prime minister's office said.

The Israeli military also confirmed Chen's identity in a separate statement.