Hamas hastened on Tuesday (October 14, 2025) to ease the pressure on a fragile ceasefire in its war with Israel by returning the bodies of more dead hostages. The move came after an Israeli military agency said it would slash aid deliveries to Gaza by half over concerns that the militant group was handing remains over slower than agreed.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office confirmed late on Tuesday that authorities received four deceased hostages that the Red Cross handed over to Israeli military authorities inside Gaza. The bodies will be taken to the National Centre for Forensic Medicine where they will be identified and the families notified.

This latest transfer of remains comes a day after Israel received the bodies of four other dead hostages. Despite the development, it was unclear if the Israeli military agency known as COGAT will follow through with its decision to allow into Gaza only half of the 600 aid trucks called for under the deal.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office in famine-stricken Gaza received word of the humanitarian aid cuts from the Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, according to spokesperson Olga Cherevko. U.S. officials were also notified, according to three Associated Press sources who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concern in a social media post that too few of the dead hostages have been returned. He made no mention of Israel halving the flow of aid into the territory.

Mr. Trump also warned Hamas that if “they do not disarm, we will disarm them”.

A day earlier, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 living hostages in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of some 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire’s first phase.

Families of hostages express dismay

Hamas and the Red Cross have said that recovering the remains of dead hostages is a challenge because of Gaza’s destruction, and Hamas told mediators of the deal that some are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.

The U.S.-proposed ceasefire plan called for all hostages living and dead to be handed over within 72 hours, meaning on Monday. But it provided a mechanism if that did not happen, saying Hamas should share information about deceased hostages and “exert maximum effort” to carry out the handover as soon as possible.

Families of hostages and their supporters expressed dismay that only four of the 28 bodies were returned on Monday. The Hostages Family Forum, representing many families, called it a “blatant violation of the agreement by Hamas”.

The top official in Israel coordinating the return of hostages and the missing, Gal Hirsch, told the families in a note that pressure was being applied on Hamas through mediators to expedite the process. A copy of the note was seen by the AP and its authenticity was confirmed by someone with knowledge of the statement.

Israel confirms identities of returned hostages

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the identity of the four dead hostages returned on Monday: Guy Illouz from Israel, Bipin Joshi from Nepal, Cpt. Daniel Peretz and Yossi Sharabi.

Illouz was abducted from a music festival, Joshi from a bomb shelter and Sharabi from Be’eri Kibbutz during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that ignited the war.

Israel said Illouz died of his wounds without proper medical treatment, while Joshi was killed in the war’s first months.

Families left waiting expressed concern.

Ela Haimi said she did not know if the body of her husband, Tal, would be returned by Hamas in a few hours, days or ever. “I am afraid they will stop the return,” she said. Tal Haimi was killed while defending his kibbutz during the 2023 attack.

Long journey to recovery

The freed Israeli hostages were in medical care, and some families said it would be weeks before the men could go home.

Dalia Cusnir-Horn said brother-in-law Eitan Horn had lost more than 40 per cent of his body weight after receiving very little food in the last few months. The physical toll was only part of the trauma, she said.

“He is just learning now…. Friends he knew that were murdered, and he had no clue how many people were kidnapped on that day and what this country went through, and it is overwhelming and it is hard,” Cusnir-Horn said.

Moshe Levi spoke of brother-in-law Omri Miran’s elation at playing with his young daughters — one less than a year old when her father was taken hostage.

“He could feel like he is a father again,” Levi said.

Palestinian prisoners allege mistreatment

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, where hundreds of prisoners and detainees were released, several were taken to hospitals.

Murad Barakat, medical director of the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, said the facility received 14 men and discharged all but two.

Doctors said their conditions suggested they “were subjected to severe beatings, reflecting the extent of the violence they endured”, said Imed al-Shami, a resident doctor at the hospital.

Kamal Abu Shanab, who was released after more than 18 months, said beatings caused his shoulder to tear. “For eight months, I was not given even a pill for the pain,” he said.

AP could not independently verify the claims. Israel’s Prison Service said it was unaware of such claims.

Nasser Hospital in Gaza said the Red Cross transferred the bodies of 45 Palestinians to its morgue. The bodies were the first of an expected 450 to arrive.

Long-term challenges for lasting peace

Difficult questions remain about Gaza’s future, including whether Hamas will disarm and who will govern and help rebuild the territory. Also unanswered is the question of Palestinian statehood.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said 15 Palestinian technocrats have been selected to administer Gaza, with approval from Israel, Hamas and all other Palestinian factions.

Palestinians in Gaza appealed for authorities to move quickly to restore some semblance of normality. “There is no infrastructure, electricity, water or anything that is fit for life,” said Mohamad Abu Hajras, one of the many displaced.

On Tuesday, the UN development agency said the latest joint estimate with the European Union and the World Bank is that rebuilding Gaza will require $70 billion.

Under the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces pulled back to where they were in August, before launching their latest offensive on Gaza City. A number of hard-hit Palestinian neighbourhoods remain under Israeli control, and Israel has warned residents not to try to return to homes there.

Gaza’s Health Ministry on Tuesday said the bodies of three people killed by Israel’s military in the north were taken to Al Ahli hospital. The military said troops had “opened fire to remove the threat” of several people approaching them and not complying with orders to stop. It did not immediately comment on any casualties.

The war has killed over 67,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says women and children make up around half the dead, and many independent experts say its figures are the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

President Donald Trump holds a signed document during a summit to support ending the more than two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after a breakthrough ceasefire deal, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas speaks during a news conference, on October 13, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One as he heads to the Middle East.
| Photo Credit: AP

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to a devastated Gaza City on Saturday (October 11, 2025), as Hamas warned the next stage in U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan would be more difficult than the first.

Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy promised Israeli hostage families their loved ones would be returned to them by Monday, and the region’s top U.S. general visited Gaza one day after the guns fell silent.

Israel and Hamas are now expected to release hostages and prisoners, two years after the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack triggered a counteroffensive that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.

But after the prisoner exchange and a partial Israeli withdrawal, the conflict’s U.S.-led mediators will then have to secure a longer-term political solution that will see Hamas hand in its weapons and step aside from governing Gaza.

In an interview with AFP in Qatar, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, warned: “The second phase of the Trump plan, as it is clear from the points themselves, contains many complexities and difficulties.”

Hamas to miss Gaza peace deal formal signing

Hamas, he said, would not attend the formal signing of the Gaza peace deal in Egypt, where international leaders are due to gather Monday to discuss implementing the first phase of the ceasefire.

Hamas is resisting calls to disarm. An official from the group, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that it was “out of the question”.

Mr. Badran said that, while the group does not want war, “our Palestinian people and the resistance force will undoubtedly confront and use all their capabilities to repel this aggression if this battle is imposed”.

Multinational force

Under the Trump plan, as Israel conducts a phased withdrawal from Gaza’s cities, it will be replaced by a multinational force from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, coordinated by a U.S.-led command centre in Israel.

On Saturday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-on-law Jared Kushner visited Gaza to plan the next phase of the truce with Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.

U.S. envoy Witkoff, in message to Gaza hostages, says you are coming home

Witkoff, Kushner and Trump’s daughter Ivanka then went on to Tel Aviv to attend a vigil with the families of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza. A huge crowd greeted them with cheers and chants of “Thank you Trump!”.

“Your courage has moved the world,” Witkoff told the families. “To the hostages themselves: you are coming home.”

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is one of about 20 hostages believed to still be alive, said: “We will continue to shout and fight until everyone is home.”

Hamas has until noon on Monday to hand over 47 remaining Israeli hostages -living and dead – from the 251 abducted two years ago.

The remains of one more hostage, held in Gaza since 2014, are also expected to be returned.

In exchange, Israel will release 250 prisoners, including some of those serving life sentences for deadly anti-Israeli attacks, and 1,700 Gazans detained by the military since the war broke out.

The Israeli prison service said on Saturday it had moved the 250 national security detainees to the prisons of Ofer, in the occupied West Bank, and Ketziot in southern Israel’s Negev desert, ahead of the handover.

‘Stood and cried’

According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, a rescue service operating under Hamas authority, more than 500,000 Palestinians had returned to Gaza City by Saturday evening.

“We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home,” Raja Salmi, 52, told AFP.

When she reached the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, she found her house utterly destroyed.

“I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust,” she said.

Drone footage shot by AFP showed whole city blocks reduced to a twisted mess of concrete and steel reinforcing wire.

The walls and windows of five-storey apartment blocks had been torn off and now lay choking the roadsides as disconsolate residents poked through the rubble.

The United Nations humanitarian office says Israel has allowed agencies to start transporting 170,000 tonnes of aid into Gaza if the ceasefire holds.

‘Ghost town’

Men, women and children navigated streets filled with rubble, searching for homes amid collapsed concrete slabs, destroyed vehicles and debris.

While some returned in vehicles, most walked, carrying belongings in bags strapped to their shoulders.

Sami Musa, 28, returned alone to check on his family’s house.

“Thank God… I found that our home is still standing,” Musa told AFP.

“It felt like a ghost town, not Gaza,” Musa said. “The smell of death still lingers in the air.”

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,682 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages, kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, hold pictures of hostages and banners as they protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel January 27, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel will continue to follow the Gaza peace deal until all the hostages return, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi Fares Saeb said.

“We will follow the deal signed until we see all our hostages back; the living ones to continue their lives with their families and the deceased ones to receive a proper burial and funeral back at their homes,” he told PTI in New Delhi on Monday (January 27, 2025) on the sidelines of an event.

The Israeli diplomat hoped for the smooth conclusion of the first phase of the negotiations.

“After the first phase, Hamas tried to break the deal by not releasing the last female civilian hostage. We viewed this as a breach but chose not to break the entire deal because we want our hostages back. We proceeded with the second step and halted the movement of Gazans to the north until Hamas adheres to the agreement.

“We hope to see the release of two female hostages, one civilian and one soldier, along with five male civilians in the next few days,” the Israeli diplomat emphasised.

Early on Monday (Jan. 27), Qatar stated that Hamas would release the civilian hostage, Arbel Yehoud, along with two others before Friday (Jan. 31). In response, Israeli officials agreed to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza starting Monday.

Around 90 hostages are still believed to be in captivity.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event related to Holocaust Remembrance Day, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh expressed happiness over the progress made in the Middle East.

“I am very happy to note that the progress that is being made to resolve the conflict is very much underway. The release of the hostages and the peace talks will hopefully pave the way for a lasting solution to this conflict,” he said.

On October 7, 2023, the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel killed approximately 1,200 Israelis, with around 200 becoming hostages.

“We cannot be mute spectators when such acts of terrorism occur. Silence and inaction have historically allowed hate and violence to flourish,” the Minister emphasised.

The Minister expressed that India views with concern the increasing instances of racial and religious intolerance and xenophobia, which continue to challenge global values such as peace, justice, the rule of law, and territorial integrity.

Mr. Blinken is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister to talk about Gaza ceasefire
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in Israel on Sunday (August 18, 2024) as part of Washington’s intensifying diplomatic push to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza that will end the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.

The top U.S. diplomat’s tenth trip to the region since the war began in October,2024 comes days after the United States put forward bridging proposals that it and mediators Qatar and Egypt believe would close gaps between the warring parties.

U.S. officials cite fresh optimism to bring the deal over the finish line but also caution that there is still work to be done.

“What we’ve done is taken the gaps that remain and have bridged those in a way that we think basically is a deal that is now ready to close and implement and move forward,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Friday.

In Israel, Mr. Blinken is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister and other senior officials.

The negotiations are taking place in the shadow of a feared regional escalation. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.

Washington has repeatedly warned Iran not to go ahead with any retaliatory action against Israel. The U.S. official said such an act could have “cataclysmic” consequences, particularly for Iran.

Foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy in a joint statement threw their support behind the ongoing ceasefire talks, urging all sides to avoid any “escalatory action.”

Talks on how to implement the deal are expected to continue early next week, before senior officials reconvene in Cairo, with the aim to conclude the deal later in the week in Cairo.

Israel’s negotiating team on Saturday (August 17, 2024) expressed “cautious optimism” on the possibility of advancing a deal, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha told Al Jazeera TV on Saturday (August 17, 2024) that Israel had added conditions in the ceasefire talks and accused Mr. Netanyahu of using them to hinder efforts.

Even as hopes grew for a ceasefire, war raged on. At least 17 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike in the Gaza town of Zawayda on Saturday (August 17, 2024), health officials said, as Israel issued new evacuation orders, citing Hamas rocket fire nearby.

The latest round of war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on October, 7 when Hamas fighters rampaged into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent military campaign has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel says it has eliminated 17,000 Hamas fighters.

Hamas said on Friday (August 16, 2024) the Palestinian group rejected “new conditions” in a Gaza ceasefire plan the United States presented after two days of talks with Israeli negotiators in Qatar.

Also read:Mediators to the Gaza War cease-fire talks say the two-day talks have wrapped up

As international pressure mounted for a ceasefire after more than 10 months of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, U.S. President Joe Biden said: “We are closer than we have ever been.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to travel to Israel this weekend to advance the latest proposal, the State Department said.

“Secretary Blinken will underscore the critical need for all parties in the region to avoid escalation or any other actions that could undermine the ability to finalise an agreement,” it said.

Washington has joined its European allies in pushing for a swift ceasefire in Gaza since the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in an attack in Iran blamed on Israel prompted threats of retaliation and fears of a wider Middle East war.

Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators have been seeking to finalise details of a framework initially outlined by Biden in May, and which he said Israel had proposed.

But months of talks have so far failed to pin down the details of a truce and hostage release deal.

The mediators said that the two days of talks in Doha were “serious and constructive”.

In a joint statement, they said the United States had presented a “bridging proposal” that sought to secure a rapid deal at a new round of talks in Cairo next week.

Hamas swiftly announced its opposition to what it called “new conditions” from Israel in the latest plan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the mediators to put “pressure” on Hamas “to accept the May 27 principles”, referring to Biden’s framework.

Western ally Jordan however put the blame squarely on Netanyahu for blocking a deal, with Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi urging pressure “by everyone who wishes to see this through to completion”.

‘Impunity’

An informed source told AFP that the conditions Hamas objected to included keeping Israeli troops on Gaza’s border with Egypt, and terms related to the release Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli hostages.

Diplomatic pressure on Israel to agree a truce has increased in recent weeks.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne held talks in Israel Friday to urge a Gaza ceasefire.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told his visiting counterparts he expects foreign support “in attacking” Iran if it strikes Israel in revenge for Haniyeh’s killing.

Sejourne replied that it would be “inappropriate” to discuss responding to any attack while diplomacy is in high gear to stop it happening.

A senior US official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Iran would face “cataclysmic” consequences if it strikes Israel.

A deadly attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank late Thursday drew international condemnation and calls for sanctions, including against government ministers, over the upsurge in settler violence against Palestinians particularly since the Gaza war began.

The Israeli military said “dozens of Israeli civilians, some of them masked”, entered the village of Jit, west of Nablus, and “set fire to vehicles and structures in the area, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails”. A Palestinian man was shot dead.

The West Bank-based Palestinian foreign ministry described the attack as “organised state terrorism”.

The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said he would propose sanctions against Israeli government “enablers” of Jewish settler violence.

“Day after day, in an almost total impunity, Israeli settlers fuel violence in the occupied West Bank,” Borrell posted on X.

“The Israeli government must stop these unacceptable actions immediately.”

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a proponent of West Bank settlements, was quick to join other Israeli leaders in condemning Thursday’s attack by “criminals”.

First polio case recorded

Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered the war that resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead. More than 100 were freed during a one-week truce in November.

On Thursday, the toll from Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza topped 40,000, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant casualties.

The war has crippled the besieged territory’s healthcare infrastructure, prompting repeated warnings from the World Health Organization of the potential for outbreaks of preventable diseases.

On Friday, the Palestinian health ministry reported an unvaccinated 10-month-old child in Gaza had been diagnosed with polio, the territory’s first case in 25 years, according to the WHO.

The announcement came hours after UN chief Antonio Guterres called for two seven-day breaks in the Gaza war to vaccinate more than 640,000 children against type 2 poliovirus, which was first detected in the territory’s wastewater in June.

As truce talks were underway, thousands of civilians were on the move again inside the Palestinian territory after the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders warning of imminent military action.

“During each round of negotiations, they exert pressure by forcing evacuations and committing massacres,” Issa Murad, a Gazan displaced to Deir al-Balah, said of the Israeli forces.