Israel strikes kill 30 in Gaza in violation of ceasefire

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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that a U.S.-backed ceasefire was not at risk of being jeopardized after deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza that local authorities said killed at least 26 people.

"Nothing is going to jeopardize" the ceasefire in Gaza, Trump said.

"They took out, they killed an Israeli soldier, so the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back," Trump told reporters.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

The Israeli army has reportedly carried out a new airstrike on the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian media said early on Wednesday.

Gaza civil defence tells AFP at least 30 killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday, after Tel Aviv launched a series of strikes on the enclave, in violation of the ceasefire.

Israeli  forces raided on Tuesday evening the village of Anza, south of Jenin, raiding and searching multiple commercial shops, local media said.

According to the Wafa agency, citing local sources, Israeli troops raided several homes in the Kharouba neighbourhood of Jenin, searching them and ransacking their contents.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, says they have recovered the bodies of two dead Israeli captives, Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, during search operations conducted on Tuesday, according to a statement on Telegram.

Two Palestinian children were shot and wounded by Israeli forces on Tuesday evening in the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, Palestinian media said.

Israeli troops reportedly opened gunfire on a group of children in the Aqaba area of ​​the village, inuring two children, one in the abdomen and the other in the limbs.

US Vice President JD Vance said the ceasefire in Gaza 'is still holding' despite Israel's deadly strikes on Tuesday.

The Gaza civil defence said Israel's strikes on southern Gaza have now killed at least five people.

Israel notified the United States before its latest strikes in Gaza, two US officials say, as reported by The Associated Press.

Hamas denied responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on Israeli forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that prompted Israel to launch attacks in Gaza.

The Palestinian group also said in a statement that it remained committed to the US-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli media claimed an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in Rafah. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the reports.

At least two people were killed and four others were injured on Tuesday after an Israeli strike on the Sabra neighborhood south of Gaza City, Gaza's civil defence said.

Israeli planes launched strikes on Gaza City after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the militant group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory. He ordered the Israeli military to carry out "powerful attacks".

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed on Tuesday that Hamas attacked its troops despite an ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, and vowed the group would "pay a heavy price".

"The terrorist organisation Hamas will pay a heavy price for attacking IDF soldiers in Gaza and for violating the agreement to return the bodies of the hostages. Hamas's attack today on IDF soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force," Katz said in a statement released by his office.

Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip after accusing Hamas of violating the US-brokered ceasefire.

Israeli planes launched strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday, witnesses said, shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to immediately carry out "powerful" attacks in Gaza.

Israel's military on Tuesday accused Hamas of staging its search for the remains of a Gaza hostage body, one of 28 the group had agreed to hand over under a ceasefire deal.

"Yesterday (Monday) Hamas operatives were documented removing body remains from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby," the military said in a statement, attaching drone footage which it said showed the act.

The aerial footage shows three individuals exiting a damaged Gaza building holding what could be a body wrapped in a white sheet.

The individuals then bury the alleged body moments before a bulldozer parked nearby uncovers it again.

"The Hamas terrorist organisation summoned representatives of the Red Cross and staged a false display of discovering a deceased hostage's body," the military statement said.

Israeli media is reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to take over more of Gaza's territory after accusing Israel of violating a ceasefire. 

According to Israel's public broadcaster Kan, Netanyahu is speaking with US officials to coordinate the move.

Hamas's armed wing said it was postponing the handover of another captive's body scheduled for Tuesday evening after what it called Israeli "violations" of the US-brokered ceasefire.

Hamas's announcement came minutes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip, accusing the militants of violating the truce deal.

"We will postpone the handover that was scheduled for today due to the occupation's violations," the Izz ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement, adding that any Israeli "escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies".

Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli military to "immediately carry out power strikes in the Gaza Strip", according to a Times of Israel reporter citing Netanyahu's office.

Clashes have erupted in southern Gaza's Rafah, according to Al Jazeera, which is reporting an exchange of gunfire between Israeli soldiers and fighters in Gaza. Artillery has also been reportedly used.

Gaza's government media office has accused Israel of committing 125 ceasefire violations since the agreement came into effect on 10 October, adding that 94 Palestinians have been killed and 344 have been injured in said violations. 

France has resumed evacuations from Gaza, with 20 people arriving last weekend, diplomatic sources said Tuesday, months after Paris suspended the operation over a student evacuee allegedly sharing antisemitic posts.

The move comes after France in August froze its programme to receive Palestinians from conflict-torn Gaza, following the launch of an investigation into how a student accused of sharing antisemitic posts was allowed into the country.

Twenty people arrived in France on Sunday, fewer than expected due to the complexity of such operations, diplomatic sources told AFP on condition of anonymity, without specifying how many more are expected.

"These operations are carried out under extremely difficult conditions on the ground and involve very high risks for both the evacuees and the people operating the convoys," the sources said.

France has helped more than 500 people leave Gaza since Israel's war on Gaza started in October 2023, including wounded children, journalists, students and artists.

Hamas's armed wing said it would hand over the remains of another captive on Tuesday, which would be the 16th of 28 that Israel has demanded as part of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades "will hand over the body of an Israeli captive that was recently found in one of the tunnel routes in the Gaza Strip at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) Gaza time," the group said on its Telegram channel.

A senior Hamas source has accused Israel of deliberately obstructing the search for the bodies of the remaining captives and described its claim of a ceasefire violation as "false".

"Israel is deliberately placing obstacles in the way of search operations, and its narrative about the resistance’s slowdown [of the release of bodies] is false," the official told Al Jazeera.

"Israel is fabricating lies about the bodies to carry out aggressive intentions, and we call on the mediators to assume their responsibilities."

The Syrian interior ministry said Monday that it had seized about 11 million captagon stimulant pills that entered the country from neighbouring Lebanon in one of the largest busts since the fall of former ruler Bashar al-Assad.

In a statement, the interior ministry said "the anti-narcotics branch in Homs province seized a vehicle coming from Lebanon containing approximately 11 million captagon pills".

The statement added that the authorities are continuing to "conduct the necessary investigations to uncover the identities of those involved and identify the criminal networks linked to the operation".

Captagon, which is similar to amphetamines, became Syria's largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011, with its trade serving as a key funding source for the government of ousted president Assad.

(AFP)

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun a meeting with senior cabinet ministers and defence chiefs to discuss a response to Hamas's alleged violation of the ceasefire.

Israeli officials have accused the Palestinian group of deliberately delaying the handover of the bodies of deceased captives in Gaza, leading to calls across the country's political spectrum for renewed attacks on Gaza.

This came after a forensics analysis reportedly found that remains handed over yesterday were part of a body returned last year, rather than the sixteenth deceased hostage as Hamas had said.

Gaza's medical authorities have said the death toll from Israel's war on Gaza has increased to 68,531 killed, as well as 170,402 injured, after hospitals reported four registered deaths in the enclave.

The UN's World Food Programme has said in a post on X that: "Over 100,000 malnourished pregnant & breastfeeding women, as well as children under five have received vital nutrition supplements while 4,400 women & girls are receiving malnutrition treatment at specialised sites."

The agency called for sustained access to ensure aid reaches everyone.

📍 #Gaza

Over 100,000 malnourished pregnant & breastfeeding women, as well as children under 5 have received vital nutrition supplements while 4,400 women & girls are receiving malnutrition treatment at specialized sites.

📣Sustained access is vital to reach everyone in need. pic.twitter.com/L3TfCK5TIH

— WFP in the Middle East & North Africa (@WFP_MENA) October 28, 2025

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has said that 20,080 Palestinian students have been killed in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023, with a further 31,147 injured, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

19,932 were killed in Gaza, while 148 were killed in the West Bank, the ministry said, adding that of the injured, 30,102 were in Gaza and 1,045 were in the West Bank.

Additionally, the ministry said that 1,037 teachers and administrators were killed in Gaza and the West Bank, while 4,757 were injured in the West Bank.

Israel said on Tuesday that a set of partial hostage remains returned by Hamas the previous day belonged to a deceased captive recovered by the military around two years ago.

"After completing the identification process this morning, it was found that last night remains belonging to the fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati, who had been returned from the Gaza Strip in a military operation about two years ago, were returned," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Netanyahu's office said that "this constitutes a clear violation of the agreement" by Hamas and that Netanyahu would meet with heads of the defence establishment "during which Israel's steps in response to the violations will be discussed".

Iran has demanded a $170 million fine from the owner of a cargo ship that it seized in Gulf waters last year and accused of having ties to Israel, a judicial official said Tuesday.

The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military, intercepted the MSC Aries in April of 2024 and detained its 25 international crew members.

At the time, the official IRNA news agency said the Portuguese-flagged vessel was "managed by Zodiac, which belongs to the Zionist capitalist Eyal Ofer".

On Tuesday, Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said charges had been filed and the case was before the courts, though no date had been set for a trial.

"A fine of $170 million has been demanded against its owner, of Israeli origin, accused of financing terrorism," Jahangir said.

Israel has demolished two homes in the occupied West Bank village of Shuqba, west of Ramallah, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. 

Israeli forces stormed the village prior to the demolition, Wafa reported.

A spokesperson for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza has said that there are over 70,000 Palestinians in the encalve that are infected with Hepatitis C, requiring evacuation from the enclave.

"We demand the immediate opening of hte crossings to limit the spread of epidemic diseases in Gaza," Khalil al-Daqran was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying.

Israel's far-right are calling for a renewed war on Gaza following Hamas' handover of what appeared to be additional remains of a captive held in Gaza.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was quoted by the Times of Israel as saying:"Now we don't need to 'extract a price from Hamas' for the violations. We need to exact from it its very existence, and destroy it completely, once and for all - in accordance with the central goal defined for the War of Revival."

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was quoted as writing to Netanyahu: "I request that you urgently convene the security cabinet today for a discussion in order to formulate a package of forceful and determined responses, and to ensure our adherence to the central objective of the war: the destruction of Hamas and the removal of the threat emanating from Gaza toward the citizens of Israel."

Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid near Jenin, with Wafa reporting that Israeli forces raided the village of Kafr Qud west of the city. 

Israel said that said a joint army and police force had killed Palestinian militatns from Jenin, and that the army launched a strike on a cave to destroy a hideout.