Updates: Hamas hands over one more Israeli captive’s body

For more on how Israel continues to impede aid deliveries into Gaza despite the ceasefire, check out our story here.

You can also see this explainer on how the ceasefire creates new problems for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

And for all our coverage on Israel-Palestine, see our page here.

This live page will be closing soon. Here are today’s most significant developments:

• The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, recovered the remains of a captive’s body in Gaza and handed it over to Israel via the Red Cross.
• Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, said about 10,000 Palestinians are believed to be buried under the rubble after Israel’s intense war on the enclave.
• Basal announced Israel targeted a car which had 11 people from the same family inside in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.
• The Israeli military said it identified “several terrorists” exiting a tunnel shaft in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis area who were approaching soldiers.
• The military also said its forces targeted southern Lebanon’s Kherbet Selem area and killed “a terrorist who took part in Hezbollah’s attempts to reestablish its military capabilities”.
• The UN’s human rights office reported that Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 1,001 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government was “working diligently to ensure that the agreement reached between Hamas and Israel is permanent and paves the way for lasting peace”.
• US President Donald Trump said he expects an expansion of the Abraham Accords soon and hopes Saudi Arabia will join the pact that normalises relations with Israel.

Agnes Callamard, the head of Amnesty International, has stressed that pressure on Israel is still necessary because the ceasefire in Gaza “doesn’t mean the end of genocide, unlawful occupation or apartheid”.

In a lengthy social media post ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers next week, Callamard called on the bloc to suspend its participation in a trade deal with Israel, known formally as the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

She said a vote on whether to suspend trade benefits as prescribed under the agreement was due to be held at the meeting in Luxembourg on October 20, but “since the ceasefire, this point was dropped from the agenda”.

“The EU [and] its member states’ must keep pressure on Israel. Revoking these proposals would betray victims of genocide and apartheid. It would reward Israel’s unlawful occupation, [and] embolden perpetrators of international crimes,” Callamard said.

“The EU-Israel Agreement must be suspended.”

A ceasefire doesn’t mean the end of genocide, unlawful occupation or apartheid.

The EU must not backtrack on suspending the 🇪🇺📷 agreement.

Diplomatic & economic pressure on Israel is needed as much as ever.

On 20 October, EU foreign ministers were due to vote on… pic.twitter.com/yrUsqPcS62

— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) October 17, 2025

The Palestinian group says the attack reveals Israel’s “premeditated intent to target defenceless civilians without any justification”.

As we reported earlier, Gaza’s civil defence said Israeli forces had targeted a car carrying 11 members of the Shaaban family – including seven children and two women – in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.

“This massacre comes in the context of the occupation’s ongoing violations of the recently reached ceasefire agreement,” Hamas said.

“This horrific crime adds to the occupation’s long record of massacres and violations, and confirms that the blood of our children and women remains a direct target for the Zionist killing machine, which brutally violates human values ​​and international laws.”

The US has forced Israel to end its war on Gaza, but now the challenge is “to be engaged every single day, several times a day” to make sure the ceasefire holds, says Israeli American activist Gershon Baskin, the cofounder of Alliance for Two States.

Baskin tells host Al Jazeera’s Steve Clemons that President Donald Trump was convinced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could force the Palestinians to surrender, but over time, it became obvious that “Hamas will never surrender”.

Baskin predicts “there will be an awakening in Israel that we can’t keep doing this … military strategies don’t work any more”.

Watch the episode of The Bottom Line below:

Israeli forces have stormed and fired tear gas bombs at Palestinians in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

Israeli forces also took up positions in the areas of al-Bawaba, al-Nashash, al-Yamama, al-Balou, Jerusalem-Hebron Street, and al-Balboul neighbourhood.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the rescue agency, says about 10,000 Palestinians are believed to be buried under the destruction of Israel’s two-year bombardment.

“Civil Defence teams are working around the clock in extremely difficult conditions, but they are in dire need of advanced and heavy equipment to accomplish their tasks,” Basal said in a statement shared on Telegram.

He said the agency receives dozens of appeals each day from Palestinian families asking for the bodies of their loved-ones to be recovered from the rubble.

“We have submitted to all international organisations lists of our urgent needs and the technical requirements necessary for the recovery operations,” he added.

Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, says a “new massacre” has been committed by Israel in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.

In a statement, Basal said Israeli forces had targeted a car carrying 11 members of the Shaaban family, including seven children and two women, after they advanced east of the city and crossed the yellow line where Israeli forces are stationed.

“They could have been warned or dealt with in a way that would not have led to death, but what happened confirms that the occupation remains bloodthirsty and determined to commit crimes against innocent civilians,” Basal said.

It is not clear whether all of the passengers were killed.

The Israeli military says its forces carried out an attack in southern Lebanon’s Kherbet Selem area earlier today, killing “a terrorist who took part in Hezbollah’s attempts to reestablish its military capabilities”.

The army also said in a statement published on Telegram that a day earlier, the Israeli troops dismantled “a Hezbollah military structure that posed a threat” to them in the Yaroun area, also in southern Lebanon.

The Israelis have been saying since the ceasefire deal was signed that all of the bodies of the captives need to be released.

There are still 19 bodies held inside Gaza. Hamas says that they’re waiting for the assistance they need in the help in the form of heavy machinery and teams on the ground.

Turkiye has actually sent a team from the disaster search and rescue. They’re waiting on the other side of the Rafah border crossing of a team of about 80 people. They’re waiting for Israeli authorisation to go in and help find and exhume some of these bodies.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Israelis have been cutting the amount of humanitarian assistance that’s agreed upon in the deal in half.

So, they’re trying to put pressure in a lot of different ways, but meanwhile, the families of the captives are putting pressure on the government for the exact same reason.

The Israeli military says it identified “several terrorists” exiting a tunnel shaft in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis area who were approaching Israeli soldiers.

According to a statement on Telegram, the army said the “terrorists were struck, in accordance with the agreement”.

It added that earlier today, several other alleged “terrorists” were identified leaving a tunnel shaft and fired towards troops in the area, but caused no casualties.

The Israeli prime minister’s office says Venezuelan opposition activist Maria Corina Machado – who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last week – told Netanyahu today “that she greatly appreciates his decisions and resolute actions in the course of the war, and Israel’s achievements”.

“She also praised the agreement for the release of the hostages in Gaza,” Netanyahu’s office said in a readout of the call between the pair.

“Ms. Machado added that she appreciates the relentless struggle against the Iranian axis of evil, which is active not only against Israel, but also against the people of Venezuela,” it added.

The Nobel committee has been criticised for awarding this year’s Peace Prize to Machado, with critics noting her support for Netanyahu’s Likud Party and a decision to address a far-right “Patriots for Europe” conference earlier this year.

“The Nobel Peace Prize should go to individuals who have shown moral consistency by bravely advocating justice for all people, not to politicians who demand democracy in their own nation while supporting racism, bigotry and fascism abroad,” the US-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement last week.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a short while ago.

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 17, 2025