US, Europe draft UN plan for Gaza force after Trump warning

The live blog has now ended and will be back tomorrow at 9AM BST. You can read more of The New Arab's coverage of developments on Gaza here.

Thousands of worshippers returned on Friday to the Gaza Strip's few intact and many damaged mosques, where for the first time in months loudspeakers blared the Islamic call to prayer.

"God is the greatest, glory to God, Lord of worlds," echoed through mosques at roughly the same time Friday, one week after a ceasefire took place in the devoutly Muslim coastal Palestinian territory.

To be united for prayer again "is an indescribable feeling after two years of privation", Ghalid al-Nimra told AFP at Gaza City's Sayed Hachem mosque.

Sayed Hachem, one of the oldest mosques in Gaza's largest city, was miraculously mostly spared during two years of Israeli air strikes and fighting.

As he watched the hundreds of worshippers, Nimra was moved to see "such a large crowd gathered here" for the first time since Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack.

As the prayer rang out at 12:30 pm (0930 GMT), many hastened as they crossed the building's Ottoman-era door.

Old and young, many of their faces solemn, prayed together inside, where even the minbar, the imam's raised platform, seemed intact.

Out of Gaza's 1,244 mosques, 1,160 were partly or wholly destroyed.

The International Criminal Court Friday rejected Israel's bid to appeal against arrest warrants for its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war.

Israel had asked the court in May to dismiss the warrants while it weighed a separate challenge over whether the ICC had jurisdiction in the case.

The court rejected this on 16 July, saying there was "no legal basis" for quashing the warrants while the jurisdiction challenge was pending.

A week later, Israel asked for leave to appeal that ruling, but judges ruled on Friday that "the issue, as framed by Israel, is not an appealable issue."

"The Chamber therefore rejects the request," said the ICC in a complex, 13-page ruling.

ICC judges are still weighing a wider Israeli challenge over jurisdiction.

A Palestinian woman was injured by Israeli fire near the southern city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which reported that an Israeli drone fired live rounds at a group of people in the town of Abasan al-Kabira.

Israel said Friday it had received the remains of one more dead captive released by Hamas militants in Gaza under a US-backed ceasefire agreement.

"Israel received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a deceased hostage who was returned" to Israeli security forces in Gaza, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

The body will be transferred to a medical analysis centre in Israel to be identified, it added.

The Israeli army said Friday the remains of a hostage had been handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza, after Hamas said it would return the body as part of a ceasefire deal.

"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 (army) troops in the Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.

The International Olympic Committee on Friday hit out at the Indonesian government's refusal to issue visas for Israeli athletes at the upcoming gymnastics World Championships.

Last week, Indonesian authorities denied Israeli gymnasts entry visas for the championships that start on Sunday, before the Israeli Gymnastics Federation appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), demanding that it either guaranteed their athletes' presence or forced a move or cancellation of the event.

But CAS rejected the appeal, meaning that Israeli athletes will not compete in the October 19-23 championships in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

In a statement released on Friday, the IOC expressed "great concern" over the Indonesian decision and said it would "discuss the specific situation" of the Asian country at its next Executive Board meeting.

"The IOC's principled position is very clear: all eligible athletes, teams and sports officials must be able to participate in international sports competitions and events without any form of discrimination from the host country," the IOC said.

"It is therefore the direct responsibility of the host country, the organiser and the sports organisations directly concerned to make sure that this principle is fully respected," it added.

"Sport must remain a safe space for athletes to fulfil their dreams; and athletes must not be held responsible for political decisions."

Last week, the Indonesian government said that it would not allow entry to Israeli gymnasts, citing support for Palestinians. 

The decision comes amid increasing calls to boycott Israel over it's war on Gaza in a number of key fields, including in sports, culture and academia.

Hamas said its armed wing would hand over the remains of one more hostage on Friday night as part of the ceasefire agreement between it and Israel.

Under the "exchange deal, the Al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the body of one of the Israeli captives, which was recovered today in the Gaza Strip, at 11:00 pm Gaza time (2000 GMT)", the group said in a statement.

A United Nations special rapporteur told AFP on Friday that deadly Israeli strikes on ostensibly civilian vehicles in Lebanon since last year's ceasefire could amount to war crimes, despite Israel's assertion they targeted Hezbollah members.

Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon in spite of the November 2024 truce, which sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed militant group that culminated in two months of open war.

The Israeli military usually says it targeted Hezbollah operatives or infrastructure with its strikes, dozens of which have killed people travelling on Lebanese roads in cars and on motorbikes, or occasionally using excavators.

"Unless there is compelling evidence that those civilian objects have dual (military) objectives... the strikes are illegal," said Morris Tidball-Binz, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

"The killings resulting from the attacks violate the right to life and also the principles of precaution and proportionality and, in my opinion, also amount to war crimes," he told AFP in a written statement.

Lebanon's official National News Agency on Friday reported unspecified casualties in an Israeli strike targeting a car in the country's south.

The Israeli military is preparing for the return of another body of an Israeli captive from Gaza, according to the Israeli media. 

Hamas had previously said that it was working to locate the remains of 19 Israeli captives still in Gaza who are suspected to be buried under rubble. 

1,001 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since 7 October 2023, according to the UN's Human Rights Office, a fifth of whom are children.

"There must be an end to the bloodshed.  Annexation in West Bank needs to be reversed. There must be accountability for all violations of international law," Volker Turk, the head of the office, said, according to a post on X by the UN office.

Today marks another tragic milestone in occupied West Bank as the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces & settlers rises to 1001 since 7 October 2023. A fifth of those killed are children.

There must be an end to the bloodshed. Annexation in West Bank needs to be… https://t.co/yM2xxBbIN4

— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) October 17, 2025

The UK government said Friday that it was aiming to enable all fans to attend a football match between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv after outrage over a ban on the Israeli team's supporters.

"The government is working with policing and other partners to do everything in our power to ensure this game can safely go ahead, with all fans present," a government spokesperson said.

Birmingham-based Villa said late Thursday that the club had been informed by the Safety Advisory Group (SAG), responsible for issuing certificates for matches, that no away fans would be permitted at the Europa League game on 6 November.

Venezuelan opposition leader and newly crowned winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Maria Corina Machado voiced support for Israel in a phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister's office said on Friday.

Machado welcomed the return of Israeli hostages under a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and voiced appreciation for Israel’s efforts against Iran, which she described as a threat to both countries, the statement said.

Netanyahu congratulated Machado on her Nobel win and commended her efforts to promote democracy and peace.

Machado has previously pledged to move Venezuela’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem if her movement comes to power, aligning her with other Latin American leaders who have taken pro-Israel stances, including Argentina’s President Javier Milei and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Most countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv, avoiding Jerusalem which Palestinians also claim as the capital of a future independent state.

Machado has long sought closer ties with Israel and Netanyahu, positioning herself in contrast to Venezuela’s current government, which maintains relations with Iran and other adversaries of Israel.

Hamas intends to maintain security control in Gaza during an interim period, a senior Hamas official told Reuters news agency, adding he could not commit to the group disarming - positions that reflect the difficulties facing U.S. plans to secure an end to the war.

Hamas politburo member Mohammed Nazzal also said the group was ready for a ceasefire of up to five years to rebuild devastated Gaza, with guarantees for what happens afterwards depending on Palestinians being given "horizons and hope" for statehood.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview from Doha, where Hamas politicians have long resided, Nazzal defended the group's crackdown in Gaza, where it carried out public executions on Monday.

There were always "exceptional measures" during war and those executed were criminals guilty of killing, he said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has urged the international community to take swift action to guarantee the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Speaking at a joint news conference with his German counterpart, Fidan warned of the growing risk of “widespread disease” in the enclave and said global actors were “concerned” that Israel might use delays in Hamas’s recovery of captives’ bodies as a pretext to violate the ceasefire.

Israeli soldiers reportedly opened fire on a group of olive pickers near the southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The olive harvesters were accompanied by Lebanese army personnel and UN peacekeepers at the time of the incident.

The agency said no one was injured in the gunfire.

The EU is looking at providing funding and expertise to help disarm Hamas under US President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, a document seen by AFP Friday said.

The 27-nation bloc is discussing what role it can play after Europe was left on the sidelines as Trump sealed a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

The agreement has so far seen the war grind to a halt after two years of agony for the hostages' families, and constant bombardment and hunger for Gazans.

EU foreign ministers are set to discuss how the bloc might be involved in the peace process at a meeting on Monday.

In a document circulated on Friday, the EU's diplomatic arm said member states should "assess and explore ways to finance and provide expertise for disarmament."

An EU diplomat said that any involvement would likely be limited to "technical support" and that Europe would not be involved in any sort of "intervention force".

The document said that the EU, the largest international donor to Gaza, should focus on helping ramp up humanitarian aid deliveries to the region.

"The priority is to ensure the immediate delivery of aid at scale into and throughout Gaza in line with international humanitarian law," it said.

The EU has said it is ready to redeploy a monitoring mission to the Rafah crossing point with Egypt when it opens and could help train a future police force in Gaza.

As the biggest international donor to the Palestinians, the EU is also expected to play a role in helping cover the cost of reconstruction.

But diplomats say they expect Middle East states to take the lead and the EU doesn't want to rebuild Gaza if Israel could launch fresh offensives in the future.

"The EU should have a key role also in the recovery and reconstruction process," the document said, pointing to a "Palestine Donor Group" Brussels is pushing to establish.

"The EU should maximise its leverage with a view to gaining more influence on the process through the variety of tools at its disposal."

The EU has struggled to exert influence during the war in Gaza due to splits within the bloc between countries supporting Israel and those closer to the Palestinians.

Ministers on Monday will discuss whether to drop proposals for possible sanctions on Israel including curbing trade ties after the Trump ceasefire deal.

Hamas has released a statement mourning Major-General Muhammad al-Ghamari, a senior Yemeni military leader killed in an Israeli strike.

The group said “history will proudly remember” al-Ghamari and all those who supported the Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s “war of extermination”.

“Al-Ghamari was a loyal leader who stood with Gaza and its people, sacrificing his life for the sake of God in the fields of honour and dignity,” Hamas said.

“We offer our sincere condolences and sympathy to the leadership of the Republic of Yemen, to our brothers in Ansar Allah, and to the sons and relatives of the martyr,” the statement added, referring to the Houthi movement.

A far-right Israeli group, Tsav 9, has once again blocked humanitarian aid trucks bound for Gaza at the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.

In a post on X, the group said its members were “currently obstructing the passage of aid trucks” at several points along the route to the Israeli-controlled crossing.

Tsav 9 claimed that “Hamas violates the agreement and refuses to return hostages, so aid that enables them to rebuild must be halted,” adding: “No aid truck will pass until the last dead is returned.”

The group also shared a video showing its members preventing an aid truck from moving.

According to The Times of Israel, Tsav 9 has repeatedly interfered with aid deliveries to Gaza during the Israeli war on the enclave, blocking roads to crossings, staging protests, and in some cases, damaging or looting aid shipments.

An Israeli airstrike hit a neighbourhood in the southern Lebanese town of Khirbet Selm, according to local media reports.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack was carried out by a drone firing a guided missile that struck a car, resulting in injuries.

Hezbollah and Israel reached a truce in November 2024 following more than a year of hostilities and two months of open warfare, but Israeli strikes on Lebanese territory have continued.

US President Donald Trump said he expects the Abraham Accords to expand soon and expressed hope that Saudi Arabia will join the agreement, which normalised relations between Israel and several Arab nations.

“I hope to see Saudi Arabia go in, and I hope to see others go in. I think when Saudi Arabia goes in, everybody goes in,” Trump said in an interview aired on Fox Business Network.

He described the deal as a “miracle” and “amazing”, praising the UAE for signing it.

“It’ll help bring long-lasting peace to the Middle East,” Trump added.

Hamas called on mediators on Friday to follow up on implementation of the remaining provisions of a US- brokered ceasefire agreement with Israel, which ended two years of war in Gaza.

The Palestinian group said in a statement that there was a need to complete the formation of a community support committee which should begin its work in administering the Gaza Strip.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government was holding urgent talks on Friday to overturn a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending a match at Aston Villa that Israel's government branded "shameful".

Birmingham-based Villa said the club had been informed by the Safety Advisory Group (SAG), responsible for issuing certificates for matches, that no away fans would be permitted at the Europa League match on November 6.

A UK police commissioner asked local officials to review the decision as criticism of the ban mounted, including from Starmer and European governing body UEFA.

A spokesman for the prime minister said on Friday that conversations were "happening at pace across government and with all the relevant groups to find a way to resolve this".

Britain's Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, whose brief includes sport, was set to meet interior ministry officials and other stakeholders.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said fans of Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv should not be barred from a soccer match in Birmingham next month.

Aston Villa said travelling Maccabi fans - who were involved in violence a year ago in Amsterdam - would be barred from the Europa League match on November 6 after West Midlands police expressed concerns about potential protests outside the stadium.

Starmer posted on X that it was "the wrong decision".

"We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets," he wrote. "The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation."

Israeli teams have become a focus for pro-Palestinian protesters as passions over the Gaza conflict have run high.

Last November, more than 60 people were arrested in Amsterdam after clashes following a match between Maccabi and Ajax.

Video footage surfacing online showed Maccabi fans in the days before the game chanting anti-Arab slogans. Police said Maccabi supporters burned a Palestinian flag, pulled down another and vandalised a taxi. The mayor later said she would not host Maccabi again.

Dozens of Turkish specialists dispatched by Ankara to help find bodies in Gaza are currently at the border in Egypt, awaiting a green light from the Israeli government, a Turkish official told news agency AFP on Friday.

"A team of 81 AFAD members is currently waiting at the border on the Egyptian side," the official said, referring to the government agency for search and rescue operations. "It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza."

Britain's media regulator Ofcom said a BBC documentary about children's lives in Gaza narrated by the 13-year-old son of a deputy agriculture minister in the territory's government broke broadcasting rules.

It said the failure to disclose the position of the boy's father was "materially misleading".

The Israeli military said on Friday that border security forces had thwarted an attempt to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Israel using a drone.

According to the statement, cited by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the drone was carrying two pistols and a magazine.

The United Nations said Friday it would take time to reverse a famine in the Gaza Strip and urged the opening of all crossing points into the war-shattered Palestinian territory.

"It's going to take some time to scale back the famine," the UN World Food Programme's spokeswoman Abeer Etefa told a media briefing in Geneva, saying the WFP had five distribution points up and running but wanted to get to 145 in order to "flood Gaza with food".

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that basic goods entering Gaza are becoming unaffordable due to the devastation of the enclave’s farmlands after Israel’s two-year campaign of destruction.

“A kilo of tomatoes that once cost 60¢ now costs $15 – if found at all,” the agency said on X. “Families who once lived from their land now have no income.”

According to UNRWA teams on the ground, most of the trucks entering Gaza since the ceasefire began a week ago are carrying commercial goods rather than humanitarian aid- leaving many families unable to afford or access the fresh food they urgently need.

"Until Gaza’s agricultural sector can be rebuilt, there must be an unrestricted flow of aid," UNRWA added.

Almost all of #Gaza’s farmland is destroyed or inaccessible.

A kilo of tomatoes that once cost 60¢, now costs $15 - if found at all.

Families who once lived from their land now have no income.

People cannot afford the food reappearing in the markets.

Until Gaza’s agricultural… pic.twitter.com/yIusGPolLF

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 17, 2025

Iran on Friday condemned strikes by its arch-foe Israel on southern Lebanon, a stronghold of its close ally Hezbollah.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the strikes were a "blatant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity," in a statement.

Lebanon said on Thursday that Israel had killed one person and wounded seven, while the Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah and allied groups.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the attacks had struck civilian facilities and denounced what he described as a breach of a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel negotiated last year.

That has come as a blow to Iran itself, which was also hit by Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities during a 12-day war with Israel this year.

Hezbollah and Israel agreed a truce in November, after more than a year of hostilities that culminated in two months of open war.

Israel has nevertheless repeatedly bombed Lebanese territory.

Baqaei also accused France and the United States -- who are guarantors of the truce -- of "continued inaction and appeasement" toward Israel over what he called the "repeated violation" of the agreement.

Houthi leader Abdulmalek al-Houthi has accused “espionage cells” operating within humanitarian organisations of assisting Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s capital in August, which killed more than a dozen senior rebel officials.

In his weekly televised speech on Wednesday, al-Houthi said the group had obtained “conclusive information” indicating that a cell linked to the World Food Programme was involved in the attack that targeted Houthi leaders during a meeting in Sanaa.

The movement also confirmed that its chief of staff, Mohammed al-Ghammari (al-Ghumari), was among those killed in the 28 August strikes.

The Israeli military claimed al-Ghammari had “planned and executed attacks on Israel and international vessels,” saying his death delivered “a severe blow to the Houthi terror regime’s army and chain of command.”

Hamas’s armed wing has urged supporters and media outlets not to spread “rumours” regarding the fate of Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

In a Telegram post shared by the Hamas-linked Shehab news agency, the Brigades said that the circulating claims “either anticipate his next appearance or suggest an impending obituary”.

The group warned that such speculation serves “security and moral purposes that could harm the resistance”, calling on followers to rely only on official statements.

“The resistance security calls on everyone to adopt the resistance’s position on Abu Ubaida’s fate and avoid drawing their own conclusions,” the statement added.

The message comes amid growing social media speculation that Abu Ubaida was seriously injured but remains alive.

On 30 August, Israel claimed it had killed him in a strike on Gaza, a report Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied.

Hamas has reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire agreement, pledging to maintain the truce in Gaza, end the war, and begin reconstruction of the enclave.

“As a movement, we are committed to the implementation of the agreement, which guarantees the cessation of war, the protection of our people from attacks, and the commencement of reconstruction,” said Hamas leader in the occupied West Bank, Zahir Jabbarin, in a televised address.

“We do not accept any international tutelage over our people,” he added.

Jabbarin also called for recognition of the Palestinian right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state.

“Today, the world faces a real test,” he said. “Those who want to bring peace to the region must implement the unified stance of the international community, ensure the establishment of the State of Palestine, resolve the issue of prisoners, and ensure the release of all remaining prisoners without fighting.”

The ceasefire agreement, mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, was signed in Egypt and took effect on 10 October following approval from both sides.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military has begun marking the so-called yellow line- the boundary to which Israeli forces withdrew under the ceasefire agreement- in Gaza.

Katz wrote on X that the line serves as a warning to Hamas and Gaza residents "that any violation or attempt to cross the line will be met with fire."

Israeli forces have already opened fire on people alleged to have crossed the area, killing several Palestinians in recent days following the ceasefire, despite the absence of markings prior to this announcement.

A map shared by US President Donald Trump indicates that roughly 58 percent of Gaza remains under Israeli control.