Palestine

A Palestinian child has died of wounds sustained during an Israeli military raid in the Askar camp in Nablus, in the latest violence against civilians in the occupied West Bank, as a fragile ceasefire in Gaza brings little respite to Palestinians in the destroyed enclave.

Israeli forces on Friday also stormed the town of Aqaba, north of Tubas in the West Bank, and made a number of arrests earlier today in Hebron and Tal.

The Israeli army said they arrested 44 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over the past week. A military statement says operations were carried out in various parts of the territory and all people detained were wanted by Israel. It added that troops also confiscated weapons and conducted interrogations during the operations.

Last week, 10-year-old Mohammad al-Hallaq was shot dead by Israeli forces while playing football in ar-Rihiya, Hebron.

According to the United Nations, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army and settlers since October 7, 2023, in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

A fifth of the victims are children, including 206 boys and seven girls, the UN said. The number also includes 20 women and at least seven people with disabilities. This does not include Palestinians who died in Israeli detention during the same period, the UN added.

A United States-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal has seen nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees released from Israeli jails, many bearing visible signs of abuse.

Dozens of Palestinian bodies returned have been badly mutilated and show signs of torture and execution.

Meanwhile, in tandem with the military’s sustained crackdown in the occupied territory, Israeli settlers have rampaged near Ramallah, destroying Palestinian property at an alarming rate daily with impunity, protected by the military.

Settlers set fire to several Palestinian vehicles in the hill area in Deir Dibwan, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, at dawn this morning, the Wafa news agency reported.

On Sunday, an Israeli settler brutally assaulted a Palestinian woman while she was harvesting olives in the West Bank town of Turmus Aya.

Afaf Abu Alia, 53, suffered a brain haemorrhage due to the attack.

“The attack started with around 10 settlers, but more kept joining,” one Palestinian witness told Al Jazeera. “I think by the end, there were 40, protected by the army. We were outnumbered; we couldn’t defend ourselves.”

According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), settlers have attacked Palestinians nearly 3,000 times in the occupied West Bank over the past two years.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday that since October 7, 2023, “the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has also witnessed a sharp escalation in violence”.

“The increasing annexation of the West Bank is happening steadily in a gross violation of international law,” UNRWA said, referring to the expansion and recognition of illegal Israeli settlements.

US lays down law to Israel on annexation

After a vote in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday advancing a bill that would formalise the annexation of the occupied West Bank, senior US officials have been adamant it won’t happen under their watch.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday, “Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank” amid growing condemnation of an Israeli parliamentary motion that seeks to formally annex the occupied Palestinian territory.

Earlier in the day, in an interview with Time Magazine, Trump said that the US is firmly against Israeli annexation. “It won’t happen. It won’t happen. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now,” Trump told Time.

US Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, while in Israel, also said that Trump’s policy remains that the occupied West Bank won’t be annexed by Israel, calling the parliamentary vote in favour of annexation a “very stupid political stunt” that he “personally” took some insult from.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Israel to shore up the Gaza ceasefire and second-phase plans, has also lined up in the Trump’s administration’s firm opposition to Israeli annexation.

The body of a Thai farm worker killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack was returned home to Thailand. Sonthaya Oakkharasri’s body had been held in the Gaza Strip. Thai officials say 45 nationals have died in the conflict — the highest foreign toll among Israel’s foreign workers.

World Health Organization says 41 critical patients evacuated yesterday as Rafah border remains shut, despite ceasefire.

Group of 27 Congress members call for release of Mohammed Ibrahim, 16, held in Israeli detention for eight months.

A group of United States lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to secure the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian American who has been held in Israeli detention centres for eight months.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, 27 members of the US Congress called for the release of Mohammed Ibrahim amid reports that he faces abusive conditions in detention.

“As we have been told repeatedly, ‘the Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad,’” the letter, signed by figures such as Senators Bernie Sanders and Chris Von Hollen, states. “We share that view and urge you to fulfil this responsibility by engaging the Israeli government directly to secure the swift release of this American boy.”

Mohammed’s detention, which has now lasted for more than eight months, has underscored the harsh conditions faced by Palestinians held in Israeli prisons with little legal recourse.

“His family has received updates from US embassy staff and former detainees who described his alarming weight loss, deteriorating health, and signs of torture as his court hearings continue to be routinely postponed,” the letter said.

Analysts and rights advocates also say the case is demonstrative of a general apathy towards the plight of Palestinian Americans by the US government, which is quick to offer support to Israeli Americans who find themselves in harm’s way but slow to respond to instances of violence or abuse against Palestinians with US citizenship.

“The contrast has been made clear: The US government simply does not care about Palestinians with US citizenship who are killed or unjustly detained by Israel,” Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel programme at the Arab Center Washington DC, told Al Jazeera.

During his time in prison, Mohammed’s 20-year-old cousin, Sayfollah Musallet, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. US Ambassador Huckabee called for the Israeli government to “aggressively investigate” the murder, but no arrests have been made thus far, and Israeli settlers who carry out violent attacks against Palestinian communities rarely face consequences.

Musallet’s family have called for the Trump administration to launch its own independent investigation.

“Our government is not unaware of these cases. They are themselves complicit,” said Munayyer. “In many cases where Palestinian Americans have been killed, the government does nothing. This is not unique to the Trump administration.”

In testimony obtained by the rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), Mohammed said that he was beaten with rifle butts as he was being transported and has been held in a cold cell with inadequate food. DCIP states that he has lost a “considerable amount of weight” since his arrest in February.

Israeli authorities have alleged that Mohammed, 15 years old at the time of his initial detention, threw stones at Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. He has not had a trial and denies the charge, and the letter from US lawmakers states that “no evidence has been publicly provided to support this allegation”.

Charges of stone throwing are widely used by Israeli authorities against Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli facilities are notorious for their mistreatment of detainees.

A DCIP investigation into the detention of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank found that about 75 percent described being subjected to physical violence following their arrest and that 85.5 percent were not informed of the reason for their arrest.

“The abuse and imprisonment of an American teenager by any other foreign power should be met with outrage and decisive action by our government,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement about the case.

“The Trump administration must be America and American citizens first, and secure the release of Mohammed Ibrahim from Israel immediately. This 16-year-old from Florida belongs at home, safe with his family – not in Israeli military prisons notorious for human rights abuses.”

Israeli army and settlers have carried out 158 attacks against olive pickers since the start of the current season

Israel has ordered the deportation of 32 foreign activists supporting olive-harvesting Palestinian farmers amid mounting Israeli army and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank two weeks into the harvesting season.

Israeli news outlet Israel Hayom reported that the activists were arrested last week near the town of Burin, in the Nablus Governorate, as they protested an Israeli general order stating that only those working on the harvest are allowed on the land during the harvesting period.

Israeli army and settlers have carried out 158 attacks against olive pickers since the start of the current season, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

The assaults included a range of violations, including beatings, mass arrests and shootings. At least 74 attacks targeted olive-growing lands, including 29 cases where trees and farmland were cut, bulldozed or uprooted. A total of 765 olive trees were destroyed.

The UN and rights groups have said Palestinian farmers face a heightened risk while gathering olives.

“Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency,” Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity activists.”

The UN estimates that 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families rely on the olive harvest for their livelihoods, Sunghay said.

On Wednesday, a statement by Interior Minister Yariv Levin and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated that the activists would be deported over their alleged affiliation with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC).

A 99-year entry ban was imposed on the activists, the statement said, without specifying their identities, nationalities or where they would be deported to.

Settler violence against Palestinians has worsened since the start of the war in Gaza.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, 2023, in the occupied West Bank, according to the United Nations, and thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced due to Israeli settler attacks, movement restrictions and home demolitions.

The UN says the first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage – a 13 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

On Sunday, a settler attack in the town of Turmus Aya was captured on camera and showed Israeli settlers descending on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists and beating them with clubs. One woman was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

At least 36 people, including journalists, were injured earlier this month when settlers attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives in the Jabal Qamas area of Beita, beating them and setting fire to three vehicles.

More than 700,000 settlers live in 150 settlements and 128 outposts – both illegal under international law – dotting the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Settlers are often armed and frequently accompanied or protected by Israeli soldiers.

In addition to destroying Palestinian property, they have carried out arson attacks and killed Palestinian residents.

Israel and Hamas have exchanged the remains of more captives, but the Palestinian group says Israel is failing to uphold the terms of the Gaza ceasefire agreement by refusing to reopen the crucial Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The bodies of two more Israeli captives, one soldier and one civilian, were returned to Israel late on Tuesday, and identified early on Wednesday as those of Aryeh Zalmanovich, 85, and army Master Sergeant Tamir Adar, 38.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had earlier received the bodies in Gaza, in a handover organised by the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

The Israeli military said that Zalmanovich died in captivity in Gaza on November 17, 2023, and that Adar was killed in fighting in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken back to the Palestinian territory.

Hamas has now handed over the bodies of 15 Israeli captives as part of the ceasefire agreement with Israel.

An estimated 13 more sets of remains are expected to be returned to Israel, although Hamas has said the widespread devastation in the Palestinian territory and the Israeli military’s continuing control of certain parts of Gaza have slowed the recovery of the bodies.

The Palestinian group also released 20 living captives in one day at the start of the ceasefire.

Earlier on Tuesday, the bodies of 15 Palestinians killed in Israeli detention were returned to Gaza, where they were taken to the Nasser Medical Complex for identification, according to a medical source.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel released some 2,000 living Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons, and has committed to releasing the remains of 360 more deceased Palestinians.

A forensics team that received the bodies of some 45 Palestinians returned by Israel last week said that some arrived still shackled and bearing signs of physical abuse and possible execution.

Ubai Al-Aboudi, the executive director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development, said that Palestinians imprisoned by Israel should also be considered to be “hostages”.

“This entire system dehumanises Palestinians,” Al-Aboudi told Al Jazeera from Ramallah, adding, “when we talk about Palestinian prisoners, we are actually talking about hostages”.

Al-Aboudi noted that about 20 percent of the Palestinian population has been arrested or detained by Israel over the decades, and that the situation in Israeli prisons has deteriorated dramatically since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.

“Most of them are held without any due process, without being charged, and just based on military orders by a foreign military occupation,” he said.

Rafah crossing still closed

A delegation of Hamas officials, attending talks with Turkish officials in Qatar on Tuesday, said that the Palestinian group remains committed to the ceasefire deal despite Israel’s “repeated violations”.

Israel is delaying the implementation of the ceasefire by failing to open the Rafah crossing “for the travel of sick and injured people, and its prevention of the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza”, the Hamas officials said in a statement.

Mujahid Muhammad Darwish, head of the Hamas delegation, also highlighted “the inalienable rights of our people to self-determination and their right to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital”.

Turkiye was among the signatories of US President Donald Trump’s document on the Gaza ceasefire deal earlier this month in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh.

The Rafah crossing has remained closed since May 7, 2024, when it was seized by Israeli forces as they invaded the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip’s south, where close to one million people were sheltering at the time.

The United Nations has described the crossing, which connects the Palestinian territory to Egypt, as one of two “arteries” for humanitarian access.

The UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ordered Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing on May 24, 2024, following an emergency submission from South Africa, but the crossing has remained closed, with only limited access via the adjacent Karem Abu Salem crossing.

Residents of Rafah were only able to return to the destroyed city after a temporary ceasefire began on January 19, 2025, which also saw the Rafah crossing temporarily reopen to allow medical evacuations in February, before Israel issued new forced evacuation orders for Rafah at the end of March.

The crossing has remained closed for humanitarian aid access since May 2024.

Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) has obtained testimony from Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Ibrahim, whose case has become a symbol for the mistreatment of minors in Israeli jails.

In an interview with a DCIP lawyer, published on Tuesday, 16-year-old Mohammed described the harsh conditions he has faced since his detention began in February, including thin mattresses, cold cells and meagre meals.

“The meals we receive are extremely insufficient,” he is quoted as saying.

“For breakfast, we are served just three tiny pieces of bread, along with a mere spoonful of labneh. At lunch, our portion is minimal, consisting of only half a small cup of undercooked, dry rice, a single sausage, and three small pieces of bread. Dinner is not provided, and we receive no fruit whatsoever.”

According to DCIP, Mohammed has lost a “considerable amount of weight” since his detention started more than eight months ago. He was 15 years old at the time.

Mohammed’s family, rights groups and US lawmakers have been pleading with the administration of United States President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to release the teenager.

The US has provided Israel with more than $21bn over the past two years.

“Not even an American passport can protect Palestinian children,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the accountability programme director at DCIP, said in a statement.

“Despite his family’s advocacy in Congress and involvement of the US Embassy, Mohammad remains in Israeli prison. Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military court.”

After Israeli soldiers raided Mohammed’s family home in the occupied West Bank in February, they took the teenager into custody. Mohammed recalled to DCIP that the soldiers beat him with the butts of rifles as they transported him.

The teenager was originally housed in the notorious Megiddo prison – which a recently released Palestinian detainee described as a “slaughterhouse” – before being transferred to Ofer, another detention facility.

“Each prisoner receives two blankets, yet we still feel cold at night,” Mohammed told DCIP.

“There is no heating or cooling system in the rooms. The only items present are mattresses, blankets, and a single copy of the Quran in each room.”

The teenager has been charged with throwing stones at Israeli settlers, an accusation that he denies. Legal experts say that Palestinians from the occupied West Bank almost never receive fair trials in Israel’s military courts.

The abuse that freed Palestinian captives have described after the recent prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel, as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, spurred renewed calls for releasing Mohammed.

“Right now, Mohammed Ibrahim, a US citizen, is being held in an Israeli prison. His health is deteriorating. The circumstances are desperate,” Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley wrote on X on Sunday.

“The United States must use every avenue available to secure the release of this Palestinian American child.”

Since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, at least 79 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli jails amid a lack of medical care, restrictions on food and reports of violence and torture, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Club.

Medical officials in Gaza have described signs of torture and execution on the bodies of slain Palestinian captives handed over by Israel after the ceasefire over the past week.

Earlier this year, Mohammed’s relatives told Al Jazeera that they fear for his life.

His father, Zaher Ibrahim, said that the Trump administration could use its leverage to free his son with a single phone call. “But we’re nothing to them,” he told Al Jazeera.

Since 2022, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 10 US citizens, including two in the West Bank in July.

Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist and US resident, appeared before a federal appeals court in Philadelphia as Trump administration lawyers push to deport him. His case, tied to campus activism at Columbia University, has become a test of free speech and political dissent rights.

Israel says it’s returned to the Gaza ceasefire – after launching a wave of air strikes on Sunday, killing more than 40 Palestinians.

It blamed Hamas for the breach, saying its fighters were responsible for an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers.

Hamas denies breaking the ceasefire.

The violence was a reminder for Palestinians that Israel is willing to suspend peace, and unleash its firepower, whenever it sees fit.

The United States insists the truce will hold – and has sent Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Presidential Advisor Jared Kushner to Israel.

But the renewed assault has cast doubt on whether the ceasefire will advance to the second phase – which is meant to see Hamas disarm and Israel withdraw from Gaza.

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:
Alon Pinkas – Former Israeli ambassador and former consul general in New York

Hussein Haridy – Former Egyptian assistant foreign minister

Frank Lowenstein – Former US special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations

UN Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has inspected damage in Gaza City as the agency plans to ramp up its humanitarian relief efforts. He visited a destroyed water treatment plant and emphasised the enormity of the response needed.

Gaza Government Media Office says Israel has breached the truce agreement 80 times, including 21 violations on Sunday.

When the ceasefire in Gaza was announced, I experienced a range of mixed emotions. I felt joy that the bombs had finally stopped, but also dread that they could resume at any time. I felt optimistic that we could go back to normal life, but also anxious that this could once again be short-lived.

As an English teacher, I hope to see education restored as soon as possible. Education is the only means of reviving hope and helping children start to overcome the trauma of two years of genocide. It can provide a sense of normalcy and purpose. That is why it ought to be Gaza’s top priority.

Before the start of the genocide, I taught English to elementary and middle school pupils at an educational centre and a public girls’ school in Gaza City.  The school was destroyed in the first weeks of the war; the education centre was badly damaged.

My family and I were forced to flee our home. A few months later, I started teaching in a tent; it was a local initiative run by volunteers. There were no desks in the tent; my students – ranging from six to 12 years of age – were sitting on the floor. The conditions of teaching were difficult, but I was committed to helping kids continue their education.

By late December 2024, pens, books, and notebooks started to entirely vanish from shops and markets. A single notebook would cost anywhere from 20 to 30 shekels ($6 to $9), if it was available at all. This was out of reach for the majority of families.

When the shortage of paper, books and pens became palpable, some of my pupils started arriving at class without anything to write on; others would collect scraps of paper from the rubble of homes and arrive at class with that; others still would write in tiny letters on the backs of old sheets of paper preserved by their families. Because pens were so scarce, several children would often have to share a single pen.

Since writing and reading, the cornerstone of education, became so difficult to do, we educators had to come up with alternative teaching strategies. We did group recitation, oral storytelling, and songs.

Despite the lack of supplies, children had an amazing will to continue learning. Seeing them struggling with old scraps of paper filled me with admiration and anguish; I was proud of their will to learn in spite of everything, and their perseverance inspired me.

I had a special notebook my grandmother had gifted me years ago, which I used as a diary. I wrote in it my dreams and my secrets. After the war, I filled the pages with stories of bomb explosions, homeless families sleeping in the street, starvation I had never experienced before, and suffering in the absence of even the most basic necessities.

On one particular school day in August, when the majority of my pupils showed up without any paper, I knew what I had to do. I took my notebook and I started tearing its pages, one by one, giving them to my students.

With so many kids, my notebook’s pages ran out in a single day. My students then had to go back to the scraps of paper or cardboard.

The truce may have put a stop to the bombs, but my students are still without paper and pens. Humanitarian aid has started coming into Gaza once again. Food, medicine, and materials for shelter are coming in. These are all crucial. But we also urgently need educational supplies and support to put education back on track for Gaza’s 600,000 schoolchildren.

Books, pens and paper are not just school supplies. They are a lifeline that can help the children of Gaza triumph over war, destruction and immense loss. They are critical tools that can sustain their perseverance and willpower to live, learn and see a bright future.

Children can recover from the trauma of war and regain a sense of security with the aid of education. Learning gives them back the structure, self-assurance, and hope for a brighter future that are necessary for both community healing and psychological rehabilitation.

We need to give children who lost two years of education the opportunity to write, learn, and dream again.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

‘They are torn to pieces, I don’t know if I’m saying goodbye to my son or my daughter.’ Palestinians are grieving 11 members of a family killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City, the deadliest single violation of the shaky ceasefire, just days after it came into effect.

Mouin Rabbani from the Center For Conflict & Humanitarian Studies talks about the violence in Gaza since the ceasefire began and how he believes it’s being fuelled by Israel.

Hamas has rejected a statement from the United States State Department in which it cited “credible reports” indicating the Palestinian group would imminently violate the ceasefire deal with Israel.

In a statement on Sunday, Hamas said the US allegations were false and “fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda and provide cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes and organised aggression against our people”.

The US State Department had claimed that Hamas is planning an attack against civilians in Gaza “in grave violation of the ceasefire” and called on mediators to demand that the group uphold its obligations under the US-backed peace deal.

In a statement late on Saturday, the State Department said it had obtained “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza”.

“Should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire,” it said, without giving specific details on the planned attack.

The United States has informed the guarantor nations of the Gaza peace agreement of credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.  

This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation…

— Department of State (@StateDept) October 18, 2025

Hamas called on the US to “stop repeating the [Israeli] occupation’s misleading narrative and to focus on curbing its repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement”.

“The facts on the ground reveal the exact opposite, as the occupation authorities are the ones who formed, armed, and funded criminal gangs that carried out killings, kidnappings, theft of aid trucks, and assaults against Palestinian civilians. They have openly admitted their crimes through media and video clips, confirming the occupation’s involvement in spreading chaos and disrupting security,” it said.

Hamas said its police forces in Gaza, “with broad popular and community support, are fulfilling their national duty in pursuing these gangs and holding them accountable according to clear legal mechanisms, to protect citizens and preserve public and private property”.

‘Attempt to stoke civil conflict’

Palestine scholar and Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani described the US State Department warning as mind-boggling.

“I think this is really an attempt to stoke civil conflict within the Gaza Strip … to achieve what so far Israel has failed to achieve,” Rabbani said.

The Dutch-Palestinian analyst pointed out that Israel has already attempted to “wreak havoc” in Gaza by joining forces with “armed gangs and collaborator militias” who act as Israeli proxies in the war-torn enclave.

“To suggest that this is in any way the United States coming to the defence of those whose genocide it has unconditionally supported for two entire years just boggles the mind and defies the imagination,” Rabbani said.

Hamas and Israel have been trading blame over violations of the US-mediated ceasefire since it came into force last week, threatening the success of the week-old deal.

Gershon Baskin, an American-Israeli analyst, told Al Jazeera that throughout the history of agreements between Palestinians and Israelis, all of them have been “breached” one way or another.

“If the Americans are serious that they want this to work, they have to be engaged every single day and several times a day” to make sure the steps agreed on are carried out on the ground, he said.

The Gaza Government Media Office said on Saturday that it had counted almost 50 Israeli violations of the peace deal, resulting in 38 Palestinian deaths and 143 injuries since the ceasefire took hold.

It called Israel’s actions “flagrant and clear violations of the ceasefire decision and the rules of international humanitarian law”.

According to the office, Israeli forces in Gaza fired directly at and bombed civilians, attacks that reflected Israel’s “continued aggressive approach despite the declaration of a ceasefire”.

Israel has also been accused of failing to comply with the ceasefire deal by continuing to block efforts to reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

The opening of Rafah has been called for in order to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the Strip and to allow Palestinians to travel abroad.

Amid growing frustration with Israel’s refusal to open the Rafah crossing, Rawhi Fattouh, the president of the Palestinian National Council – the Palestine Liberation Organization’s legislative body – urged the international community on Saturday to deploy international forces in Gaza to protect Palestinians and ensure the ceasefire deal is implemented.

Hamas has turned over the remains of two more deceased Israeli captives from Gaza, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced, as the Palestinian group accused Israel of continuing to commit ceasefire violations and repudiating the commitments made to peace mediators.

“Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the bodies of two hostages”, which were returned to Israeli security forces in Gaza, Netanyahu’s office said in a post on the X social media platform early on Sunday.

The prime minister’s office said the families of the Israeli captives have been updated on the return of the remains, although no names have been released so far.

The office said the two bodies have been transferred to the Israeli National Centre of Forensic Medicine, and “upon completion of the identification process, formal notification will be delivered to the families”.

“The effort to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned,” the prime minister’s office added.

With the handover late on Saturday, Hamas has now returned the remains of 12 of the 28 captives who died in Gaza, a key demand by Israel in the week-old ceasefire deal to end the two-year war.

According to the deal, Hamas was to return all of the Israeli captives – both the living and the dead – within 72 hours of its signing. In exchange, Israel was to release 360 bodies of deceased Palestinians and some 2,000 prisoners.

Hamas has said the widespread devastation in the Palestinian territory and the Israeli military’s continuing control of certain parts of Gaza have slowed the recovery of the bodies of deceased captives.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said Palestinian authorities do not have adequate equipment to help with the search for captives’ bodies beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings.

“It’s very difficult, with recovery teams on the ground facing extraordinary challenges. [They have] no bulldozers, no trucks, no cranes and no heavy equipment… to speed up the process and help with the recovery and return of bodies,” Mahmoud said.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, who is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Al Jazeera is banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank, said that Netanyahu’s government has known “for some time” that the recovery of bodies of captives would be “an incredibly difficult and daunting task”.

Netanyahu, however, has accused Hamas of not doing enough to return the remains of the 28 and that all of the bodies need to be returned immediately, Salhut said.

“Until that happens, that’s when Israel is going to honour more of the commitments of the ceasefire, like letting in more humanitarian assistance, talking about opening the Rafah border crossing,” she said.

For days, Hamas and Israel have traded blame over violations of the US-mediated ceasefire.

On Saturday, Hamas accused the Netanyahu government of “fabricating flimsy pretexts” to not follow through on its commitments to the peace deal, as well as denouncing Israel’s refusal to open the Rafah crossing with Egypt as “a blatant violation” of the agreement.

On Friday, Israeli forces killed 11 members of a single family, including seven children, in an attack east of Gaza City.

The Palestinian Embassy in Egypt announced earlier on Saturday that the Rafah crossing, the main gateway for people in Gaza to leave and enter the enclave, would reopen on Monday.

But Netanyahu said the border crossing would remain closed until Hamas hands over the bodies of all the deceased Israeli captives.

The delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza also remains slow despite the ceasefire deal.

On Saturday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it had enough humanitarian food supplies to feed Gaza for three months, but trucks carrying the life-saving cargo are unable to enter Gaza and are stuck in warehouses in Jordan and Egypt.

“We must be allowed to get all this aid into Gaza without delay,” UNRWA said, adding that it also has equipment to provide shelter to as many as 1.3 million people.

Thousands converged on New York’s Times Square Saturday for a ‘No Kings’ protest against President Donald Trump. It was part of a nationwide event that comes amid military crackdowns in US cities, deportations and revenge indictments of political foes and in the wake of the Gaza peace deal.

Hamas agreed to return all of the Israeli captives – both the living and the dead – within 72 hours of signing a ceasefire deal with Israel.

It has been more than a week, and 18 bodies have yet to be handed over.

The Palestinian group is calling for heavy machinery to retrieve the remains.

It accuses Israel of purposely hampering the search, while Israel insists that Hamas is dragging its feet.

All the while, the lives of Palestinians in Gaza depend on the return of Israel’s dead.

Will Israel resume the war? And is the US prepared to give it the green light?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Ori Goldberg – Israeli political commentator

Xavier Abu Eid – political analyst

Mehmet Celik – editorial co-ordinator at the Daily Sabah