Hamas hands over two more bodies, says it can't recover remaining captives

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Hamas intends to stick to its pledge to return the bodies of dead captives in Gaza, senior US advisers said Wednesday, after Israel threatened to resume fighting because only a few had been given back.

"We continue to hear from them that they intend to honour the deal. They want to see the deal completed in that regard," one of the advisers told reporters on condition of anonymity.

(AFP and TNA staff)

The United States is looking to establish a basic stabilisation of Gaza and planning is underway for an international force to go into the Palestinian enclave, said a senior US adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Wednesday.

"Right now what we're looking to accomplish is just a basic stabilization of the situation. The international stabilization force is starting to be constructed," said the senior US adviser.

Among the countries the US is speaking to about contributing to the force are Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Azerbaijan, said a second senior US adviser, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

One of the advisers said that no one would force any Gazans to leave the Palestinian enclave.

"What we've said very clearly is that aid is going in, but no rebuilding money will go into areas that Hamas controls," the first adviser said. "We're looking at starting to rebuild in areas that right now are Hamas-free, terror-free zones."

(Reuters)

Israel's defence minister on Wednesday threatened to resume fighting if Hamas didn't honour a Gaza truce deal, saying he had ordered the military to prepare "plan to crush" the group in the event of renewed combat.

"If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the United States, will resume fighting and act to achieve a total defeat of Hamas, to change the reality in Gaza and achieve all the objectives of the war," a statement from Israel Katz's office said.

It comes after Hamas's armed wing said it had transferred all the bodies it could access, and that it would need special recovery equipment to reach more bodies promised under a ceasefire deal.

(AFP and TNA staff)

Israel said its forces received two captive bodies from the Red Cross on Wednesday which had been returned under a US-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza.

"Israel has received, through the Red Cross, two coffins containing the bodies of hostages who were handed over to IDF  and Shin Bet forces inside the Gaza Strip," a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Shortly afterwards, the military said the coffins had crossed over into Israeli territory where they would be identified.

(AFP and TNA staff)

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the military on Wednesday to prepare a comprehensive plan to "defeat Hamas" in Gaza if the war is renewed, a statement from his office read.

This came after US president Donald Trump suggested he could give the green light to Israel to resume its genocidal assault on Gaza is Hamas refuses to surrender its weapons.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Hamas has handed over the remains of two Israeli captives to the Red Cross, the Israeli military has said.

The organisation is en route to transfer them to the Israeli military and Shin Bet, it said.

We'll bring you more as we get it.

US president Donald Trump has threatened to allow Israel to resume its assault on Gaza if Hamas does not agree to surrender its weapons.

When asked by CNN what he would do if Hamas refuses to disarm, Trump said:

"Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word. If Israel could go in and knock the crap of them, they’d do that."

In a statement issued moments ago, Hamas's armed wing has said it had handed over all the bodies it has been able to recover.

Finding the remaining bodies requires "significant efforts and special equipment", the Al-Qassam Brigades said, adding it is "making great efforts" to locate and return them.

The Red Cross is reportedly heading to pick up another two bodies from Hamas.

It has returned the remains of seven of the deceased captives since the ceasefire came into effect at the weekend.

The Red Cross is on its way to meet Hamas in northern Gaza to pick up the remains of the deceased captives, the Israeli military has said.

Hamas's armed wing has just issued a statement saying it will hand over another two bodies of deceased Israeli captives at 2200 local time (1900 GMT).

It did not disclose the identities of the bodies.

Hamas has returned seven of the 28 captives thought to have died in Gaza. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel said that an eighth body handed over was not one of the hostages.

One of the deceased captives returned by Hamas to Israel on Wednesday was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

Tamir Nimrodi, a soldier who was captured at an Israeli military facility near the Erez crossing on 7 October, was "killed by IDF bombings in captivity," the campaign group said.

An earlier statement from his family said he was "murdered" while in captivity.

Israeli forces have killed at least 15 civilians in Gaza since the ceasefire with Hamas last week, the UN Human Rights Office said Wednesday, accusing them of committing war crimes.

"Since 10 October, at least 15 Palestinians have been shot and killed in areas near remaining Israeli troops," it wrote on social media on Wednesday.

"Targeting civilians not directly participating in hostilities constitutes a war crime regardless of the location of the incident and its proximity to agreed deployment line," it said.

France on Wednesday accused Hamas of carrying out "summary executions" in Gaza after a ceasefire with Israel.

The group has published a video showing the shooting of eight blindfolded and kneeling suspects, branding them "collaborators and outlaws".

The footage, apparently from Monday evening, emerged as armed clashes were under way between Hamas's various security units and armed Palestinian clans, some alleged to have Israeli backing.

"France strongly condemns the summary executions carried out by Hamas in recent days in Gaza," the French foreign ministry said.

"The armed incidents that have occurred in recent days are particularly concerning."

The top US commander in the Middle East, Brad Cooper, earlier on Wednesday demanded that Hamas stop shooting "innocent Palestinian civilians" after the executions.

(AFP and TNA staff)

Medical Aid for Palestinians has labelled Israel's restrictions on aid entry into Gaza following the enactment of a ceasefire "outrageous".

Fikr Shalltoot, Map's Gaza Director, said that "It is frankly outrageous that life-saving humanitarian aid and the lives of Palestinians are used by Israel as a bargaining chip in negotiations, when it is their obligation under international law to ensure its entry."

"The UK and other governments must pressure Israel to immediately end its siege, open all crossings and allow a surge of aid across Gaza. Without a flood of aid and assistance, we will see more avoidable deaths and deprivation," Shalltoot added.

The US military's Middle East command on Wednesday called on Hamas to stop its violence against civilians in Gaza and disarm "without delay" as the militant group reasserts itself by deploying security forces and executing those it deems collaborators with Israel.

Hamas, which has not publicly committed to disarming and ceding power, has gradually sent its men back into the streets of Gaza since the ceasefire began on Friday. It has killed more than 30 members of "a gang" in Gaza City, a Palestinian security source said on Monday, without identifying the gang involved. Hamas has cited crime and security concerns for its actions as thousands of Palestinians return to the enclave's shattered north.

"We strongly urge Hamas to immediately suspend violence and shooting at innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza," Commander Brad Cooper, head of the US military's CENTCOM, said in a statement.

Cooper asked the militant group to fully stand down, "strictly" adhere to US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, and put down its weapons without delay.

"We have conveyed our concerns to the mediators who agreed to work with us to enforce the peace and protect innocent Gaza civilians," he said.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told AFP on Wednesday that Israel should immediately open crossings into Gaza for humanitarian aid as part of a ceasefire deal.

"It should happen now. We want it to happen immediately as part of this agreement," Fletcher said in an interview in Cairo, referring to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Fletcher is expected to go to the lifeline Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which has been closed for several months, on Thursday.

A Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire east of the city of Khan Younis, according to sources speaking to Al Jazeera from the Nasser Medical Complex.

Israel returned the bodies of 45 Palestinians on Wednesday, bringing the total number handed over to 90, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said.

Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.

On Monday, Hamas gave up three Israeli bodies and one Nepalese for transfer and on Tuesday three more Israelis and one as yet unidentified body that the military says was not that of someone listed among deceased hostages.

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is expected to reopen to allow people to cross on Thursday with an EU mission set to deploy there, two sources told Reuters.

The sources did not specify what restrictions might be applied to those seeking to cross. The Israeli military and the office of the Israeli prime minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel expects Palestinian militant group Hamas to return the remaining hostages to Israel, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Under a U.S.-brokered plan, Hamas released all 20 hostages still alive to Israel on Monday but so far has returned just seven of an expected 28 dead captives.

"Hamas ... is required to uphold its commitments to the mediators and return all of our hostages as part of the implementation of this agreement," the spokeswoman said in a news conference.

"We will not compromise on this, and we will spare no effort until our fallen hostages return, every last one of them." 

A German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that reported executions by Hamas in Gaza in clashes with local clans constitute acts of terror against the population but Germany sees an unchanged need to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Gaza's death toll has risen to 67,938 after the bodies of 25 people, including 16 who were recovered from the enclave, arrived at Gaza's hospitals over the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave.

35 Palestinians were also wounded during the same period, with the ministry adding that victims remain under the rubble.

An Israeli attack on the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City has killed two Palestinians, according to a medical source at the al-Ahli hospital speaking with Al Jazeera.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was back in a Tel Aviv court on Wednesday for the latest hearing in his long-running corruption trial, which opened in May 2020.

The prime minister kept a smiling face as he and his entourage of several ministers from his conservative Likud party were heckled by protesters en route to the tribunal.

His latest appearance at the Tel Aviv court also follows the return of the hostages taken by Hamas as part of Trump's US-brokered plan to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

In one case, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods, including champagne, cigars and jewellery, from billionaires in exchange for political favours.

In two other instances, Netanyahu is also charged with attempting to negotiate better press coverage from two Israeli media outlets. He has denied any wrongdoing, claiming to be the victim of a political plot.

The Israeli army has opened fire with tanks and artillery on the town of Bani Suhaila and the Sheikh Nasser neighbourhood of Khan Younis, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. 

The Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday it is prepared to operate the Gaza-side of a key crossing for aid between Egypt and Gaza.

"Now we are ready to engage again, and we have notified all parties that we are ready to operate the Rafah crossing," said Mohammad Shtayyeh, special envoy to President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

The crossing, which briefly reopened between February and March this year, had been a lifeline to the outside world for Palestinians in Gaza, allowing the delivery of aid and the evacuation of patients from a collapsed healthcare system.

Shtayyeh said an agreement with the EU Border Assistance Mission to help the PA manage the crossing effectively, which was paused in March as hostilities recommenced, is still valid.

"We don't need a new agreement. The agreement is there, and I think now it's in the final shape of putting all the bits and pieces together for it to function," he told reporters in Geneva on a visit to Switzerland where he met Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.

Israel's military said on Wednesday that one of the four bodies it received from Hamas on Tuesday does not match any of the hostages that were in the group's custody.

It added that the Palestinian group is required to make all efforts to return the bodies of the remaining hostages.

Israeli forces beat a Palestinian man to death in the town of al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which said that Israeli forces assaulted the man, 57, beating him in the head.

The Red Crescent said it received the man's body and transferred it to the Palestine Medical Complex.

Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti has been beaten unconscious by Israeli prison guards, according to The New Arab's sister network Alaraby TV, which added that four of his ribs have been broken during the beating, which was done by eight members of the Israeli Nahshon unit.

#عاجل | مصادر للتلفزيون العربي:
📌الأسير مروان البرغوثي تعرض للاعتداء بالضرب أثناء نقله من سجن ريمون إلى سجن مجدو منتصف سبتمبر الماضي
📌8 أفراد من وحدة "نحشون" الإسرائيلية شاركوا في الاعتداء على الأسير مروان البرغوثي pic.twitter.com/VkkjwL21f1

— التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) October 15, 2025

Translation: "Prisoner Marwan Barghouti was assaulted and beaten while being transferred from Ramon Prison to Megiddo Prison in mid-September. Eight members of the Israeli 'Nahshon' unit took part in the assault on prisoner Marwan Barghouti."

The Palestinian Presidency in Ramallah has condemned the executions of Palestinians accused of being Israeli collaborators by Hamas, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which carried the statement. 

The presidency described the executions as "heinous crimes that are utterly rejected under any pretext," calling for an end to the executions and "accountability of all those involved in these crimes within the framework of the law and the legitimate Palestinian judiciary."

Israel will allow Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt to open on Wednesday and increase the amount of humanitarian aid coming into the enclave, public broadcaster Kan reported, after Hamas handed over more bodies of deceased hostages.

Subject to Israel's security approval, Gazans who had left the enclave during the war will be allowed back in for the first time and others will be allowed to cross out through the Rafah crossing, Kan reported.

Some 600 trucks carrying mainly food and medical supplies, as well as equipment needed for repairing damaged infrastructure, will be allowed in, Kan said. There was no immediate comment from Israeli or Palestinian officials.

Israel had threatened to keep the Rafah border crossing shut on Tuesday, citing Hamas' failure to meet its obligations under the Gaza ceasefire agreement and hand over bodies of deceased hostages that it was holding.

Hours later Hamas handed four coffins over to Israel through the International Committee of the Red Cross. Three have so far been identified as Israeli hostages but there were doubts about the fourth body handed over, Israeli media reported.