Israeli forces kill 3 in Gaza in latest ceasefire violation

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on the eastern part of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, simultaneously demolishing homes in the area. Palestinian sources reported that an airstrike using two missiles targeted the Bani Suheila and Al-Tahliya areas east of Khan Younis.

Two US officials told The Times of Israel on Monday that the Trump administration has urged Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza now that the ceasefire has taken effect. One of the officials said that some parts of Gaza are more dangerous than others, and that with Israel still controlling the eastern half of the Strip after the ceasefire began on October 10, the Trump administration has renewed its request for journalists to be granted access to Gaza, while acknowledging that the issue is not a top priority for Washington

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that Israel's advancement of a plan to execute Palestinian prisoners constitutes a war crime and represents the latest manifestation of Israeli extremism.

The ministry said the draft law, which will go to the Knesset for its first reading, confirms that Israel intends to carry out extrajudicial killings of Palestinians.

Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed two people and wounded seven others on Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel said it killed two members of Hezbollah.

Israel in recent days threatened to expand its attacks against the Lebanese armed group, despite a ceasefire being in place since November 2024.

In a preliminary toll, the ministry said that an "Israeli enemy strike" on the town of Doueir in Nabatiyeh district killed one person and wounded seven others.

Israel has released five Palestinian prisoners in a move that has brought renewed hope to some families in Gaza.

According to Al Jazeera, which cited prominent Palestinian journalist Hind Khoudary, this marks the first time since the ceasefire that Israeli forces have freed unidentified Palestinian detainees.

Following their handover as part of the recent truce agreement, the five individuals were taken to a hospital in Deir al-Balah for medical examinations, Khoudary reported.

Relatives of the former prisoners gathered outside the hospital to welcome them, while others waited to ask about the fate of missing family members, she added.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has called for adherence to “all clauses” of the US-brokered Gaza agreement, amid near-daily Israeli violations of the truce’s terms.

Herzog made his remarks during a ceremony marking the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was killed by a far-right Israeli extremist for his role in promoting peace and a two-state solution.

Israeli officials continue to demand that Hamas immediately return all bodies of slain captives, despite widespread knowledge that many are still buried under rubble in hard-to-reach areas.

On Sunday, Israeli bulldozers entered southern Gaza to recover remains, locating and returning three bodies of captives.

Despite this, Israel has used delays in the recovery of bodies to justify renewed and deadly strikes across the enclave.

Gaza's future must be Palestinian-led and avoid any new system of tutelage, Turkey and six of its top Muslim allies said Monday after talks in Istanbul.

Turkey, which played a central role in forging the now shaky three-week-old ceasefire, is pushing for Muslim nations to bring their influence to bear on the reconstruction of the embattled territory.

"Our principle is that Palestinians should govern the Palestinians and ensure their own security, the international community should support this in the best possible way -- diplomatically, institutionally and economically," Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said after the talks.

"Nobody wants to see a new system of tutelage emerge," he told a news conference.

The talks involved top diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia.

All of them were called to a meeting with Trump in September on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, just days before he unveiled his plan to end the Gaza war.

"We've now reached an extremely critical stage: we do not want the genocide in Gaza to resume," Fidan added, saying all seven nations supported plans for the Palestinians to take control of Gaza's security and governance.

Fidan, who held talks at the weekend with a Hamas delegation led by its chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, said the Islamist movement was "ready to hand Gaza to a committee of Palestinians".

He also expressed hope that reconciliation efforts between Hamas and the rival West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, "will bear fruit as soon as possible," saying inter-Palestinian unity would "strengthen Palestine's representation in the international community".

Gaza residents are suffering "a volcano" of psychological trauma from Israel's devastating military campaign that has become clear since last month's truce, according to Palestinian mental health specialists.

Two years of intense Israeli bombardment and repeated military incursions that local health authorities say have killed more than 68,000 people, along with widespread homelessness and hunger, have affected all of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants.

The crisis is evident in the large numbers now seeking treatment from the Gaza City Mental Health Hospital team, now working out of a nearby clinic because their building is damaged, its head Abdallah al-Jamal told news agency Reuters.

"With the start of the truce, it was like a volcano erupting in patients seeking mental health services. Even the stigma that used to be present before, the fear of visiting a psychologist, does not exist anymore," he said, describing "a very large increase" in numbers from before the conflict.

Jamal and a colleague are working as best they can, but with the hospital having suffered significant damage their resources are limited and they have to share a room, depriving their patients of consultations in privacy.

"That is honestly insulting in the way services are provided, but we are trying as much as possible to find alternatives," he said of the more than 100 patients they see there every day.

Among children, there are widespread reports of night terrors, bed-wetting and other symptoms including an inability to focus, say mental health specialists for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. "Gazan children are now suffering from shortages of food, water, shelter, and clothing," Nivine Abdelhadi told Reuters, a specialist from the organisation, which is offering activities for children that include games and stories.

The Israeli military has claimed, without offering evidence, that it carried out a strike on “terrorists” in southern Gaza who it alleged had crossed the so-called "yellow line”- a boundary marking the area of the enclave under Israeli control- in what it described as a breach of the ceasefire agreement.

In a statement posted on X, the army gave no further information about the number of people targeted in the attack.

The limits of the "yellow line" were never clearly communicated to residents of Gaza when the ceasefire came into effect and remain unmarked. Dozens of Palestinians have reportedly been killed for unknowingly approaching or crossing the line.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday that Israel must stop its regular violations of the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza and also fulfil its duty to allow access to humanitarian aid.

He was speaking after a ministerial meeting in Istanbul involving Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey.

Countries are still working on a planned UN mandate for a stabilisation force in Gaza as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, and they will decide whether to send soldiers based on this, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday.

Turkey wants to see a post-war framework for Gaza in which "Palestinians ensure Palestine's governance and security," he said, after a meeting in Istanbul involving Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Israeli fire killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday, north of the southern city of Rafah, which remains under Israeli control, according to local health authorities, further testing the fragile US-backed ceasefire.

Medics said one of those killed was a woman. The identities of the two others weren't immediately clear.

In a statement issued earlier on Monday, the Israeli military claimed "terrorists" crossed into Israeli-occupied territory in Gaza.

The incident follows days of Israeli strikes on the enclave in violation of the ceasefire signed more than three weeks ago.

Residents said Israeli forces continued to demolish houses in the eastern areas of Rafah, Khan Younis, and Gaza City.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Israel returned the bodies of 45 Palestinians to Gaza on Monday, bringing the total number handed over under the ceasefire deal to 270, the health ministry in the territory 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.

Following forensic identification, Israel confirmed Monday that remains handed over by Hamas the day before belonged to three hostages seized by Palestinian fighters during the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.

The remains were those of American-Israeli Captain Omer Neutra, 21 years old at the time of his abduction, Corporal Oz Daniel, 19, and Colonel Assaf Hamami, 40, the highest-ranking officer killed by Hamas.

Hamas's armed wing said it had found the remains earlier on Sunday "along the route of one of the tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip"

Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed two people and wounded seven others on Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said, after Israel threatened to expand its attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

In a preliminary toll, the ministry said that an "Israeli enemy strike" on the town of Doueir in Nabatiyeh province killed one person and wounded seven others.

The second strike on Aita al-Shaab in the same province also killed one person, according to the ministry.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone targeted a car in Doueir, causing it to catch fire.

The NNA said that the strike caused damage to a local shopping centre.

Israeli authorities have extended the detention of Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi and retired Colonel Matan Solomesh, the army’s former chief military prosecutor, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

The pair were arrested earlier this week as part of an investigation into the leak of a video showing Israeli soldiers assaulting a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman military prison in southern Israel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised Israel’s conduct since the ceasefire in Gaza, saying that Hamas appears more committed to upholding the agreement than Israel.

“We all see that Israel’s record on this matter is very poor,” Erdogan said, according to remarks published by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

“We are facing an administration that has massacred over 200 innocent people since the ceasefire agreement and continues its occupation and attacks on the West Bank,” he continued.

Erdogan also warned against further Israeli expansion, stating: “We cannot allow the annexation of the West Bank, the changing of Jerusalem’s status or attempts to damage the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The family of British-Tunisian journalist and political commentator Sami Hamdi has called on the UK government to intervene after he suffered a health emergency while being held in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre.

“In a phone call with his wife Soumaya this weekend, Sami shared that he was experiencing excruciating pain on his left side and needed to be seen by a medical professional immediately,” the family said in a statement. “He has now been able to access medical attention, but we remain deeply concerned that his continued detention is damaging his health.

“We demand the UK government intervene immediately to ensure Sami is immediately returned home to us before his health suffers any further.”

Hamdi was detained by US authorities on 26 October while on a speaking tour about Israel’s war on Gaza. He was stopped at San Francisco International Airport after his visa was revoked two days earlier, reportedly following pressure from anti-Muslim and pro-Israel social media influencers.

Cooperation between Iran and the United States is not possible as long as Washington continues to support Israel and to maintain military bases and interfere in the Middle East region, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday.

His comments were reported by state media.

A Palestinian was injured in an Israeli drone strike on Bani Suheila, located east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Qatari outlet Al Jazeera reported, citing a source at the Nasser Medical Complex.

Turkey will on Monday canvass peers in the Islamic world to bring their influence to bear on the future of Gaza, as fears grow for a just weeks-old truce.

According to Turkish foreign ministry sources, Ankara is set to urge those dignitaries to support plans for Palestinians to take control of the coastal territory's security and governance.

On the eve of the Monday meet, Turkey's foreign minister Hakan Fidan welcomed a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, the Palestinian Islamist movement's lead negotiator.

"We must end the massacre in Gaza. A ceasefire in itself is not enough," Fidan said, arguing for the two-state solution to the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We should recognise that Gaza should be governed by the Palestinians, and act with caution," he added.

A 35-year-old Palestinian man, Ahmed Rabhi al-Atrash, was shot and killed by an Israeli settler north of Hebron. The Red Cross reported that its teams were blocked from providing medical assistance at the scene and that Israeli forces later took custody of the body.

In a separate incident, 17-year-old Jameel Hanani died from his injuries after being shot by Israeli forces in Beit Furik, east of Nablus.

Israeli forces have detained at least six Palestinians during overnight raids across the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

In the city of Nablus, two men and two women were taken into custody following raids in several neighbourhoods. Additional arrests were reported in the towns of Deir Ghassana and Beit Rima, both situated northwest of Ramallah.

Israeli police arrested former military prosecutor Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the internal security minister said Monday, after a scandal sparked by a leaked video appearing to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee.

Tomer-Yerushalmi disappeared for several hours on Sunday after she announced her resignation, with speculation swirling in the press of a possible suicide attempt.

"It was agreed that in light of last night's events, the prison service would act with extra vigilance to ensure the detainee's safety in the detention centre where she has been placed in custody," Itamar Ben Gvir said on Telegram.

Israel said on Monday the remains of three hostages returned from Gaza the previous night belong to soldiers who were killed in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 followed by the war. The identification marked another step forward for the tenuous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

The military said the men were killed in the attack on southern Israel and that their bodies were dragged by militants back to Gaza. It identified the three as Lt. Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli, Oz Daniel and Lt. Col. Assaf Hamami. A Hamas statement earlier said their remains were found on Sunday in a tunnel in southern Gaza.

Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, Palestinian fighters have released the remains of 20 hostages, with eight now remaining in Gaza.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he had spoken with Neutra's family, describing their relief and heartbreak. “They were thrilled, in one sense, but in another sense, obviously, it’s not too great,” Trump said.