Closing summary
Hamas handed over four more bodies of Israeli hostages on Tuesday evening as Israel threatened to reduce aid into Gaza over delays to the release of remains. The Israeli military said in a statement: “According to information provided by the Red Cross, four coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their custody and are on their way to IDF (military) and ISA (security agency) forces in the Gaza Strip.”
Four bodies returned earlier were named on Tuesday. Yossi Sharabi, Daniel Peretz, Guy Iluz and Bipin Joshi were named by hostage groups and the Israeli military.
Donald Trump has warned that Hamas must disarm or “we will disarm them”, after he earlier declared that phase two of his ceasefire agreement for Gaza “begins right now”. “They said they were going to disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” the US president told reporters. Asked how he would do that, Trump said: “I don’t have explain that to you, but if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. They know I’m not playing games.” Trump added that could happen “quickly and perhaps violently”.
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed through Wednesday and the flow of aid into the Palestinian enclave will be reduced, three Israeli officials said on Tuesday.
A nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has returned to the West Bank after four years of self-exile, outlining a roadmap to secure peace in Gaza with Hamas transforming into a political party and declaring his readiness to help govern. Nasser al-Qudwa, a prominent critic of the current Palestinian leadership, also urged “a serious confrontation of corruption in this country”.
Some of the near 2,000 Palestinian prisoners released on Monday are suffering from a range of health problems they developed during years in Israeli detention, doctors and freed prisoners in the occupied West Bank told the Associated Press. The Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah received 14 men released on Monday as part of the exchange and discharged all but two.
The European Union should maximise its influence in Gaza’s recovery process and join a US-proposed “Board of Peace” intended to temporarily oversee governance of the territory, the EU’s diplomatic arm said in a document seen by Reuters. Israel and the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas carried out a hostage-prisoner exchange on Monday and a ceasefire is in force under the first phase of president Donald Trump’s 20-point initiative for Gaza after two years of war.
The Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that halts two years of armed conflict in Gaza presents an opportunity for a lasting economic recovery in the region, the International Monetary Fund’s deputy chief economist said on Tuesday. Petya Koeva-Brooks said the IMF stands ready to cooperate with the international community on the recovery of Gaza and regional economies that have been deeply affected by the conflict, including Egypt and Jordan.
Pictures from the news wires show Red Cross vehicles arriving to transport the remains of four more Israeli hostages:
Updated
The Israeli military has released a statement on the release of four more bodies of Israeli hostages.
Agence France-Presse has the statement:
“According to information provided by the Red Cross, four coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their custody and are on their way to IDF (military) and ISA (security agency) forces in the Gaza Strip.”
Four more bodies of Israeli hostages handed over to Red Cross
The Red Cross has received the bodies of four hostages from Gaza, the Israeli military has said.
This comes after the bodies of four hostages were handed over to Israel earlier.
We’ll bring you more details as we get them.
Earlier we reported that the Israeli military had said the Red Cross was on its way to collect the remains of “several” hostages from Gaza.
“The Red Cross is on its way to the meeting point in the northern Gaza Strip, where several coffins of deceased hostages will be transferred into their custody,” the IDF said in an updated statement, after earlier announcing the handover was to happen in southern Gaza.
Earlier, a senior Hamas official told AFP that the group was due to hand over the remains of four to six hostages later on Tuesday. On Monday, Hamas handed over the remains of four hostages, just hours after releasing the last 20 living captives.
Gaza hospital receives the first 45 bodies of Palestinians detained by Israel
Earlier today, the Associated Press reported that Gaza’s Nasser hospital had said it had received the first 45 bodies of Palestinians who had been detained by the Israeli military since October 7, 2023.
The bodies were handed over by the international committee of the Red Cross as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. A total of 450 bodies were to be returned to Gaza from Israel, the hospital said.
The hospital said some of the bodies showed signs of torture and having their hands bound. It was not immediately clear when or how they died.
On Monday, the last 20 living hostages were released to Israel in exchange for 1,808 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Hamas has so far returned the bodies of four of the remaining deceased hostages under the deal, and the Red Cross is currently on its way to Gaza to receive the remains of several more.
Palestinians who were freed in past exchanges have reported frequent beatings, insufficient food and deprivation of medical care in Israeli prisons. A 2024 UN report said that since October 7, 2023, thousands of Palestinian people have been held arbitrarily and incommunicado by Israel, often shackled, blindfolded, deprived of food, water, sleep and medical care and subjected to torture or degrading treatment.
Israel maintains that it follows international and domestic legal standards for the treatment of prisoners and that any violations by prison personnel are investigated. Far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is in charge of prisons, has repeatedly boasted of making prison conditions for Palestinian people as harsh as possible while meeting the letter of the law.
Updated
Trump warns that Hamas must disarm 'or we will disarm them', perhaps violently
Donald Trump has warned that Hamas must disarm or “we will disarm them”, after he earlier declared that phase two of his ceasefire agreement for Gaza “begins right now”.
“They said they were going to disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” the US president told reporters during a meeting with his Argentinian counterpart, Javier Milei, at the White House.
Asked how he would do that, Trump said: “I don’t have explain that to you, but if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. They know I’m not playing games.”
Trump added that could happen “quickly and perhaps violently”.
Pressed on a timeline for disarmament, Trump said only that it would be “a reasonable period of time … pretty quickly”.
Trump also said he had received word from Hamas after speaking to the group that it would disarm, talks that he said were “through my people” at the highest level.
Hamas’s disarmament is a central tenement for phase two of Trump’s 20-point plan, and the militant group has previously rejected the idea outright. On Saturday, a senior official told AFP that disarmament was “out of the question”, adding: “The demand that we hand over our weapons is not up for negotiation.”
Updated
IDF says Red Cross on its way to Gaza to receive remains of 'several' more dead hostages
The Israeli military has said the Red Cross is on its way to a meeting point in northern Gaza Strip to receive the bodies of “several” more deceased hostages. It did not disclose the number of bodies the Red Cross is set to receive. We’ll bring you more on this as we get it.
Earlier, Hamas told mediators that it would begin the transfer of four more deceased hostages this evening. So far, the bodies of four hostages have been handed over to Israel, leaving 24 still inside Gaza.
Hamas has indicated that it will take time to find some bodies under the rubble in Gaza. A spokesperson for the Red Cross has also warned locating the bodies will be a “massive challenge”.
Updated
Yousef Khalil, who found his house still standing, looks out at the destroyed district of Gaza City.
The families of missing dead Israeli hostages have written to the US special envoy Steve Witkoff to urge him to “pull out every stop and leave no stone unturned” in forcing Hamas to bring their relatives home from Gaza.
The return of 28 dead hostages was part of the agreement that ushered in a ceasefire, but only four have so far been handed over.
Mediators understand that Hamas is having trouble locating all of the dead but the Israeli government believes the group is making insufficient effort, although Israeli media reported on Tuesday night that Hamas had told mediators that they would hand-over a further four bodies within hours.
Read the full story here:
Israeli group confirms identities of two of four hostages returned from Gaza
An Israeli organisation campaigning for the release of hostages says one of the four bodies returned by Hamas was that of Yossi Sharabi, who was abducted during the group’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
“The Hostages and Missing Families Forum embraces the family of Yossi Sharabi at this difficult time, following the return of their beloved Yossi to Israel yesterday for a proper burial,” the group said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the campaign group also confirmed the return of the remains of hostage Daniel Peretz to Israel, as part of a group of four deceased hostages handed over by Hamas on Monday.
The Israeli military said it had also identified the bodies of Guy Iluz, an Israeli national, and Bipin Joshi, a Nepalese agriculture student.
Updated
Earlier, Hamas released an online video that appeared to show its fighters shooting eight blindfolded, bound and kneeling men in the street, according to AFP.
The footage, published late on Monday on Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV’s Telegram channel, was shared with the caption: “The resistance carries out the death sentence against a number of collaborators and outlaws in Gaza City.”
Hamas’s armed groups have said they are conducting a campaign against criminal gangs and clans in Gaza after the ceasefire with Israeli forces.
The Guardian could not independently verify the video, and Hamas has not provided evidence to support its claim that those killed were collaborators.
Former Israeli hostage Noa Argamani has spoken about the starkly different conditions she and her partner, Avinatan Or, faced during their time in captivity in Gaza.
“Two years passed since the last moment I saw Avinatan, the love of my life,” Argamani wrote on X after the pair were reunited this week.
Argamani, who was freed in an Israeli military raid in June 2024 after 246 days in captivity, said she was held “with children, women, and the elderly, while Avinatan was held alone … I was mostly kept inside houses, while Avinatan was only in the tunnels.”
Or, abducted with her from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023, was released on Monday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal that ended the fighting.
Bulldozers drive past displaced people, on their way to clear building rubble from the streets in Gaza City, earlier today.
Updated
Earlier, as Donald Trump welcomed Argentina’s president Javier Milei to the White House, he was asked by a reporter if Hamas was holding up its end of the deal. The US president replied: “We’ll find out.”
Netanyahu says news on remaining dead hostages expected ’within hours’
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he expects news on the remaining dead hostages still held in Gaza “within hours”.
“We will soon receive news – hopefully within hours – about the return of additional fallen hostages. But we are determined to bring everyone back,” Netanyahu said while visiting hostages freed on Monday at a hospital in central Israel.
Israel has responded to delays in the return of the deceased hostages by halving the amount of humanitarian aid to be let into Gaza on Wednesday and by keeping the Rafah crossing closed.
Hamas has previously indicated that recovering the remains of some of the dead will take longer, as not all burial sites amid the sea of rubble in Gaza are known. US vice-president JD Vance acknowledged the challenge on Sunday, saying “some of the hostages may never get back” (see my earlier post).
Updated
Israeli far-right national security minister threatens to cut off aid supplies to Gaza if Hamas fails to return soldiers' remains
Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatened on Tuesday to cut off aid supplies to Gaza if Hamas failed to return the remains of soldiers still held in the territory.
“I call on the prime minister to set a clear ultimatum for Hamas: if you do not immediately return all the bodies of our fallen soldiers and continue with these delays – we will immediately halt all aid supplies entering the Gaza Strip,” Ben Gvir said on his Telegram channel.
Greece’s foreign minister George Gerapetritis has called for the full participation of the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority in implementing the Gaza ceasefire deal, the Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports.
“The full participation of the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority is required in all aspects of the plan’s implementation – in security, humanitarian aid, and the region’s reconstruction,” Gerapetritis said.
Speaking in Athens alongside his visiting Palestinian counterpart, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, Gerapetritis said Greece was “already one step closer” to recognising the state of Palestine with the launch of the plan’s first phase.
The fragile ceasefire in Gaza has come under strain after Israel said it would cut the flow of aid into the territory by half and keep the Rafah border crossing with Egypt closed, accusing Hamas of breaching the US-brokered agreement by failing to return the bodies of Israeli hostages.
Aid agencies said no significant increase in humanitarian supplies had yet been seen, while violence flared across parts of Gaza as Hamas sought to re-assert control.
Read the full report from my colleagues Jason Burke and Daniel Boffey on Israel’s aid restrictions and the fragile ceasefire here:
The UK could take a leading role in helping to disarm Hamas in Gaza, using lessons from the Northern Ireland peace process, British prime minister Keir Starmer told parliament on Tuesday.
Starmer said decommissioning weapons would be “vital” for ensuring that Donald Trump’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas endures:
Of course, this is going to be difficult, but it’s vital. It was difficult in Northern Ireland in relation to the IRA, but it was vital. That is why we have said we stand ready, based on our experience in Northern Ireland, to help with the decommissioning process.
Starmer’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell – who played a role in the 1998 Good Friday agreement – attended the Gaza ceasefire summit in Egypt this week. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has thanked Powell for his “incredible input and tireless efforts” in shaping the ceasefire plan.
Former prime minister Tony Blair, who worked closely with Powell during the Northern Ireland talks, has also been tipped for a role in Gaza’s postwar administration under Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace”.
When asked about the “Board of Peace” and Tony Blair’s reported involvement in it in an interview on ITV today, Yvette Cooper said: “Palestine needs to be run by Palestinians, and Gaza needs to be run by Palestinians.”
European diplomats told Reuters the Northern Ireland model is being discussed as a possible framework for Gaza, though no detailed plan is yet in place.
Trump says phase two for Gaza 'begins right now' despite darkening outlook for fragile ceasefire
Phase two for Gaza “begins right now” Donald Trump has declared, even as the days-old truce appears increasingly fragile. The US president wrote on Truth Social just now that all 20 living hostages had been returned, but the dead “have not been returned, as promised”.
ALL TWENTY HOSTAGES ARE BACK AND FEELING AS GOOD AS CAN BE EXPECTED. A big burden has been lifted, but the job IS NOT DONE. THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED! Phase Two begins right NOW!!! President DJT
A crucial aspect of phase two of Trump’s peace plan is for a surge of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, as masses of Palestinian people face starvation and parts of the territory have had famine declared. But Israel has reportedly informed the United Nations it will only allow 300 aid trucks – half the agreed number – into Gaza on Wednesday and said the Rafah crossing will remain closed, because it claimed Hamas had “violated” the ceasefire agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the remaining 24 deceased hostages.
Hamas has told mediators that the remains of four hostages will be transferred to Israel tonight at 10pm local time. The group has previously indicated that recovering the bodies of some dead hostages may take longer, as not all burial sites amid the sea of rubble in Gaza are known.
Indeed on Sunday, US vice-president JD Vance acknowledged the challenges and said that locating some of the bodies would take longer, while some may never be found. He told Fox News:
The reality is that some of the hostages may never get back, but I do think, with some effort, we’ll be able to give them to their families so they at least have some closure.
We do want to give these people the ability to have a proper burial with their loved ones who were murdered by brutal terrorists, and that matters to us. It matters to the families, and it will remain a focus, but it’s going to take some time.
Updated
Gaza health ministry says death toll has risen by 44, taking total to 67,913
The Palestinian health ministry says the total death toll in Gaza has risen by 44 people with another 29 injured as a result of Israeli attacks.
The ministry said on Telegram that 38 of those were recovered from under the rubble, adding that rescue crews were still unable to reach others trapped in destroyed areas.
According to the ministry, the overall death toll in Gaza since 7 October 2023 has risen to 67,913, with 170,134 people reported injured.
Updated
Israel tells UN it will halve Gaza aid deliveries as ceasefire strains over hostage body returns
Israel has informed the UN it will allow only 300 aid trucks – half the agreed number – to enter Gaza from Wednesday, Reuters reports, citing a diplomatic note seen by the agency and confirmed by the UN.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military body overseeing aid flows, said the restrictions were being imposed because “Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages.” No fuel or gas will be permitted except for “specific humanitarian infrastructure needs”, the note added.
Associated Press reported that the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was being tested as tensions rose over the slow return of the bodies of hostages. Israel has accused Hamas of breaching the truce terms by delaying the handover of 24 deceased captives; four bodies were transferred to Israel on Monday.
Three AP sources said word of the aid cuts had been passed to US officials and international agencies. The Israeli government has not commented.
Surge of aid in Gaza has not begun, aid agencies say
The Red Cross and UN agencies have said the expected surge of aid into Gaza has not begun, warning of growing hunger as the Rafah crossing remains closed.
“We need all crossings open,” said Unicef spokesperson Ricardo Pires. “The longer Rafah stays closed, the more the suffering prolongs for people in Gaza, especially those displaced in the south.”
Three Israeli officials told Reuters the decision to keep Rafah closed through Wednesday and restrict supplies was linked to delays by Hamas in returning the bodies of Israeli hostages. Hamas said finding the bodies was difficult amid the destruction.
“The shift has not yet happened,” said Christian Cardon, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has acted as a neutral intermediary in the handovers of hostages. “We are still witnessing only a few trucks coming in, and large crowds approaching these trucks in a way that does absolutely not conform to humanitarian standards.”
Hamas says it will return bodies of four Israeli hostages tonight
Hamas has told mediators it plans to transfer the bodies of four deceased Israeli hostages to Israel at 10pm local time (7pm GMT) on Tuesday, an official involved in the operation has told Reuters.
Only half the number of agreed aid trucks will be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip from Wednesday, with a ban on fuel and gas, according to the Israeli government body known as Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat).
In a statement, Cogat said Hamas had violated the agreement by not releasing the bodies of dead Israeli hostages.
It read:
Yesterday, Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
As a result, the political leadership has decided to impose a number of sanctions related to the humanitarian agreement that was reached.
Starting tomorrow, only half of the agreed number of trucks — 300 trucks — will be allowed to enter, and all of them will belong to the UN and humanitarian NGOs, with no private sector involvement.
No fuel or gas will be allowed into the strip, except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.
The day so far
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed through Wednesday and the flow of aid into the Palestinian enclave will be reduced, three Israeli officials said on Tuesday. The decision came after Palestinian militant group Hamas did not hand over bodies of hostages it is holding as part of the new US-brokered ceasefire deal, the officials said, without elaborating on how long the move would last.
A nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has returned to the West Bank after four years of self-exile, outlining a roadmap to secure peace in Gaza with Hamas transforming into a political party and declaring his readiness to help govern. Nasser al-Qudwa, a prominent critic of the current Palestinian leadership, also urged “a serious confrontation of corruption in this country”.
Some of the near 2,000 Palestinian prisoners released on Monday are suffering from a range of health problems they developed during years in Israeli detention, doctors and freed prisoners in the occupied West Bank told the Associated Press. The Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah received 14 men released on Monday as part of the exchange and discharged all but two.
The European Union should maximise its influence in Gaza’s recovery process and join a US-proposed “Board of Peace” intended to temporarily oversee governance of the territory, the EU’s diplomatic arm said in a document seen by Reuters. Israel and the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas carried out a hostage-prisoner exchange on Monday and a ceasefire is in force under the first phase of president Donald Trump’s 20-point initiative for Gaza after two years of war.
The Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that halts two years of armed conflict in Gaza presents an opportunity for a lasting economic recovery in the region, the International Monetary Fund’s deputy chief economist said on Tuesday. Petya Koeva-Brooks said the IMF stands ready to cooperate with the international community on the recovery of Gaza and regional economies that have been deeply affected by the conflict, including Egypt and Jordan.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main Israeli group campaigning for the release of all hostages, has said that Hamas’s failure to release all of the bodies “must be met with a serious response”. On Monday, Hamas released the final 20 living hostages taken on 7 October 2023, while Israel handed over nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.
Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told the Associated Press ahead of Monday’s summit that 15 Palestinian technocrats have been selected to administer postwar Gaza. He said their names were already vetted by Israel, without disclosing them. “We need to deploy them to take care of the daily life of the people in Gaza, and the board of peace should support and supervise the flow of finance and money, which will come for the reconstruction of Gaza,” he said, referring to a board that would govern Gaza and be chaired by US president Donald Trump.
The ICRC has acknowledged that it will take time to hand over the remains of Israeli hostages in Gaza, calling it a “massive challenge” given the difficulties of finding bodies amid the territory’s rubble. “That’s an even bigger challenge than having the people alive being released. That’s a massive challenge,” the ICRC’s spokesperson Christian Cardon was quoted by Reuters as having said.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has said the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement must not come at the expense of holding accountable those responsible for the “genocide” in Gaza. “Peace cannot mean forgetting; it cannot mean impunity,” he said during an interview with Cadena Ser radio.
Israel’s military said it opened fire on people who it says approached Israeli forces operating in the northern Gaza Strip. The military said the people in question had crossed a boundary for an initial Israeli pullback under the US-brokered ceasefire plan, in a violation of the deal.
A nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has returned to the West Bank after four years of self-exile, outlining a roadmap to secure peace in Gaza with Hamas transforming into a political party and declaring his readiness to help govern.
Nasser al-Qudwa, a prominent critic of the current Palestinian leadership, also urged “a serious confrontation of corruption in this country”. He said president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement needed deep reform and must do more to counter Jewish settler violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“The first duty ... is to regain confidence of the street - something that we lost - and we have to be brave enough and say that we don’t have it anymore, and without it, frankly, it’s useless,” Qudwa told Reuters in an interview.
Qudwa left the West Bank in 2021 after he was expelled from Fatah, the movement founded by his uncle, over his decision to field his own list in elections, defying Abbas who cancelled the vote.
Abbas, 89, readmitted Qudwa to Fatah last week, after offering an amnesty for expelled members.
Some of the near 2,000 Palestinian prisoners released on Monday are suffering from a range of health problems they developed during years in Israeli detention, doctors and freed prisoners in the occupied West Bank told the Associated Press (AP).
The Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah received 14 men released on Monday as part of the exchange and discharged all but two. Doctors examining the men said their conditions suggested they had been beaten.
“It indicates that these patients were subjected to severe beatings, reflecting the extent of the violence they endured,” said Imed al-Shami, a resident doctor at the hospital’s emergency department.
The AP could not independently verify the claims. The Israel Prison Service said it was unaware of such claims.
The European Union should maximise its influence in Gaza’s recovery process and join a US-proposed “Board of Peace” intended to temporarily oversee governance of the territory, the EU’s diplomatic arm said in a document seen by Reuters.
Israel and the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas carried out a hostage-prisoner exchange on Monday and a ceasefire is in force under the first phase of president Donald Trump’s 20-point initiative for Gaza after two years of war.
But important details of how to secure a lasting peace still have to be worked out, including on governance and security arrangements, and EU foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss how Europe can contribute to Trump’s plan.
The Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that halts two years of armed conflict in Gaza presents an opportunity for a lasting economic recovery in the region, the International Monetary Fund’s deputy chief economist said on Tuesday.
Petya Koeva-Brooks said the IMF stands ready to cooperate with the international community on the recovery of Gaza and regional economies that have been deeply affected by the conflict, including Egypt and Jordan.
She said Egypt’s outlook had already been upgraded to 4.3% real GDP growth in 2025 and 4.5% in 2026 because of a recovery in tourism and a boost to the non-oil manufacturing sector.
These sectors have offset declines in Egypt’s conflict-hit Suez Canal revenues, but she said Suez and mining activities were expected to recover in 2026.
Updated
Gaza's Rafah border crossing will remain closed through Wednesday, Israel says
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed through Wednesday and the flow of aid into the Palestinian enclave will be reduced, three Israeli officials said on Tuesday.
The decision came after Palestinian militant group Hamas did not hand over bodies of hostages it is holding as part of the new US-brokered ceasefire deal, the officials said, without elaborating on how long the move would last.
Hamas previously indicated that recovering the bodies of some dead hostages may take longer, as not all burial sites amid the widespread rubble of Gaza are known.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main Israeli group campaigning for the release of all hostages, has said that Hamas’s failure to release all of the bodies “must be met with a serious response”.
On Monday, Hamas released the final 20 living hostages taken on 7 October 2023, while Israel handed over nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.
The IDF earlier confirmed the identity of two of the four bodies (Guy Illouz and Bipin Joshi) of deceased hostages it received yesterday. See post at 10.01 for more details.
Bereaved families of the 24 other dead Israeli and foreign hostages have expressed anger and sorrow that their loved one’s remains were also not handed over yesterday.
In a statement posted to X earlier today, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote:
The families of the hostages and the returned embrace the families of Guy Illouz and Bipin Joshi, along with two additional families whose loved ones were recently returned for proper burial.
Alongside the grief and the understanding that their hearts will never be whole, the return of Guy and Bipin, may their memories be a blessing, together with two additional deceased hostages, brings some measure of comfort to families who have lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt for over two years. We will not rest until all 24 hostages are brought home.
What issues are still to be resolved in the Gaza ceasefire deal?
My colleagues Archie Bland and Peter Beaumont have done a useful explainer on the unresolved issues surrounding the ceasefire agreement, which is still in its early stages of its implementation. Here are some of the main issues they have identified:
Israeli withdrawal:
So far, Israel has pulled back from Gaza’s major cities, to a “yellow line” that means it occupies about 53% of the territory. In theory, withdrawals will follow in two further stages: first, when an international stabilisation force is mobilised; second, to a lasting “security buffer zone”.
But Benjamin Netanyahu’s language in recent days had a different emphasis. “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] remains deep inside Gaza territory and controls all of its dominating points,” he said in a statement last week. “We are encircling Hamas from all directions.”
Without real carrots and sticks for Netanyahu, the recent precedents for further withdrawal are not promising.
Hamas disarmament
Disarmament is a central tenet of the Trump plan – but on Saturday a senior Hamas official told Agence France-Presse that disarmament was “out of the question”, adding: “The demand that we hand over our weapons is not up for negotiation.” Even as the hostages were released on Monday, there were images of armed fighters in parts of Gaza, an apparent attempt by Hamas to reassert its authority.
Will there be a transition to Palestinian-led governance?
The White House plan was devised with no meaningful input from Palestinian civil society on the ground in Gaza. The transitional government will involve the former British prime minister Tony Blair but as yet no credible Palestinian figure. Netanyahu appears unwilling to accept the eventual role for the Palestinian Authority floated by the US; in any case, that body and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, are deeply unpopular in Gaza. There is no Palestinian ownership of this process. It is not a grand peace deal with a vision of a state at the end of it.
Updated
British prime minister Keir Starmer spoke about the Gaza ceasefire in the House of Commons this morning.
He said:
Let me now turn to the Middle East and words I have longed to say in this house for a very long time – the surviving hostages are freed, the bombardment of Gaza has stopped and desperately needed aid is starting to enter as a result of the peace plan led by President Trump.
Starmer said the relief is tempered by concern for those who have died, and for the innocent civilians killed. “This has been two years of living hell,” he said.
He said the ceasefire deal is historic. But “what matters now is implementation”, and this has to happen as quickly as possible.
He went on:
Let no one be any doubt that none of this would have been possible without President Trump.
But Starmer also paid tribute to international allies, and he says the UK has “worked behind the scenes for months with the US, Arab and European nations to help deliver a ceasefire, get the hostages out, get aid in and secure a better future for Israel”.
Updated
Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told the Associated Press ahead of Monday’s summit that 15 Palestinian technocrats have been selected to administer postwar Gaza. He said their names were already vetted by Israel, without disclosing them.
“We need to deploy them to take care of the daily life of the people in Gaza, and the board of peace should support and supervise the flow of finance and money, which will come for the reconstruction of Gaza,” he said, referring to a board that would govern Gaza and be chaired by US president Donald Trump.
Abdelatty said the 15-member committee had already been approved by all Palestinian factions, including Hamas.
He said Hamas members welcomed Trump’s plan. They “have no role in the transitional period. They are committed to that. That is why they are working on an administrative Palestinian committee to be deployed in order to take care of the daily life of the people of Gaza,” Abdelatty said.
For its part, Israel has to comply with a withdrawal from Gaza, allowing a flow of aid the deployment of the administrative committee on the ground to ensure security for civilians, Abdelatty said. Hamas also must honor its commitments, he said.
Egypt announced that it would host a reconstruction and recovery conference for Gaza with the help of the US and Germany.
Updated
UN says countries are willing to fund Gaza's $70bn reconstruction
There are promising early indications from countries, including the US as well as Arab and European states, about their willingness to contribute to the $70bn (£53bn) cost of rebuilding Gaza, a UN development programme official has said.
“We’ve had very good indications already,” UNDP’s Jaco Cilliers told reporters at a press conference in Geneva, without giving details.
He estimated that Israel’s war had generated at least 55 million tons of rubble.
The latest UN data taken from satellite imagery between 22 September and 23 showed about 80% of all structures in Gaza City are damaged, including about 17,734 buildings that have been completely destroyed.
UNDP says it has started some clearance amid the rubble, but unexploded ordnance is hampering the pace of its work.
Updated
UN investigators said last month that they had determined that Israel has committed “genocide” in Gaza since October 2023, with the “intent to destroy the Palestinians” in the territory.
The UN investigators cited examples of the scale of the Israeli killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding.
The 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”. To count as genocide, at least one of five acts must have occurred.
The UN commission found that Israel had committed four of them: killing; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
Israel is fighting allegations at the world’s top court, the international court of justice, of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has denied the claims.
Spanish prime minister says ceasefire agreement should not mean impunity for Gaza 'genocide'
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has said the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement must not come at the expense of holding accountable those responsible for the “genocide” in Gaza.
“Peace cannot mean forgetting; it cannot mean impunity,” he said during an interview with Cadena Ser radio.
“Those who were key actors in the genocide perpetrated in Gaza must answer to justice, there can be no impunity,” he added when asked about the possibility of legal proceedings against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has an international criminal court arrest warrant against him for alleged crimes including starvation as a method of warfare.
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Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari has been speaking to Fox News about the ceasefire agreement. Doha, along with Cairo and Washington, has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas during the Israeli assault.
Asked by Fox News about the prospects of moving to phase 2 of the US-brokered agreement, al-Ansari said: “We had delayed a lot of discussions around stage one … in order to make sure stage one happens.
“The difficult discussions have begun, as to how it will look like (phase 2) to secure Gaza, administer it and ensure that there is no war again.”
The last Gaza ceasefire broke down after two months in March when Israel resumed its deadly assault. There are fears that this truce may also prove precarious, especially given the resistance from the far-right wing of the Benjamin Netanyahu’s fragile coalition.
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Many Palestinian people have faced starvation and have had to endure extreme hunger as the UN and other organisations have faced massive logistical obstacles including widespread looting, Israeli bombardments, Israel’s administrative restrictions and bureaucracy and infrastructure damaged by Israeli attacks within Gaza.
Aid agencies said, in line with the terms in the ceasefire agreement, that they are preparing to “flood” Gaza with food and other essential supplies.
At least 600 trucks are needed every day – at a minimum – to start addressing Gaza’s dire humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.
Palestinian people in Gaza have received only a trickle of aid over recent months. During the war, Israel shut down entry and exit routes, largely blocking off food and medicine, which in turn caused a famine in large parts of Gaza.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), said they have been scaling up their operations since the ceasefire took hold, including bringing eight trucks of medical supplies – which included insulin and lab supplies – into the region.
He was quoted by the BBC as having said:
Gaza’s health system must be rehabilitated and rebuilt. This crisis gives us the opportunity to rebuild it better – stronger, fairer and centred on people’s needs. The best medicine is peace.
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Returning hostage bodies from Gaza may take time, Red Cross says
The ICRC has acknowledged that it will take time to hand over the remains of Israeli hostages in Gaza, calling it a “massive challenge” given the difficulties of finding bodies amid the territory’s rubble.
“That’s an even bigger challenge than having the people alive being released. That’s a massive challenge,” the ICRC’s spokesperson Christian Cardon was quoted by Reuters as having said.
“I think that there is clearly a risk that that will take much more time. What are we telling the parties is that that should be their top priority,” he said.
Cardon added that it could take days or weeks and that there was a possibility they were never found.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has acted as a neutral intermediary in the handovers of hostages, has called for “the dignified management of the deceased” as the families of 24 Israeli hostages anxiously wait for the release of their bodies by Hamas from Gaza.
In a news release, the ICRC said its teams are ensuring the deceased are “handled with respect, including by providing body bags, refrigerated vehicles and deploying additional staff to facilitate this process”.
“Families grieving the loss of their loved ones have already endured unimaginable pain. All parties must ensure that the return of human remains is done under dignified conditions, and uphold dignity and humanity.”
The ICRC said the return of the deceased hostages to grieving Israeli families is “an essential element” for the full implementation of the US brokered agreement.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to journalists before departing from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh following yesterday’s summit.
He warned there was still a risk of terror attacks and destabilisation in Gaza by Hamas despite the positive developments from the first stages of the US brokered ceasefire plan.
“I’m concerned because we know how things work with terrorist groups,” Macron was quoted by Hareetz as having replied to a journalist’s question on whether he was concerned that Hamas would fill the power vacuum in Gaza.
“You don’t dismantle a terrorist group with thousands of fighters, tunnels and this kind of weaponry overnight,” he said.
Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Gaza as uncertainty hangs over the next stages of the ceasefire plan:
Despite the ceasefire agreement, a medical source told Palestinian news agency Wafa today that four people were killed when Israeli drones fired at residents inspecting their homes in Gaza’s eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood. We have not yet been able to independently verify this information.
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Israel says its military fired at people approaching its forces in Gaza
Israel’s military said it opened fire on people who it says approached Israeli forces operating in the northern Gaza Strip.
The military said the people in question had crossed a boundary for an initial Israeli pullback under the US-brokered ceasefire plan, in a violation of the deal.
Gaza’s local health authority said the Israeli military killed six Palestinians in two separate incidents across the territory on Tuesday. Details are still emerging so we will bring you the latest as we get it. We have not yet been able to independently verify any of the above information.
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IDF says identification process for four deceased hostages returned by Hamas has been completed
As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas had been due to return the remains of 28 hostages by early yesterday morning.
But only four have been brought back from Gaza so far, with some families expressing anger and sorrow at the extended wait.
In an update to X on Tuesday morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the identification process for the four deceased hostages returned by Hamas has been completed.
Two of the deceased hostages were identified by the IDF as Guy Illouz and Bipin Joshi, while the identities of two additional hostages have not yet been released for publication by their families.
The IDf wrote:
According to the information and intelligence available to us, Guy Iluz z”l was injured and abducted alive after fleeing the Nova party to the Tel Gama area by the Hamas terrorist organization. Guy z”l died from his injuries after not receiving adequate medical treatment in Hamas captivity, at the age of 26 at the time of his death…
According to the information and intelligence available to us, Bipin Joshi z”l, a Nepalese citizen, was abducted at the age of 23 from a shelter in Kibbutz Alumim by the Hamas terrorist organization. It is estimated that he was murdered in captivity in the first months of the war.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said any delay by Hamas in retuning the remaining bodies of deceased hostages would be viewed as a violation of the ceasefire deal.
Hamas had warned it would have trouble locating some of the dead bodies.
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UN agencies are briefing journalists on the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, as well as plans for reconstruction of the territory left in ruins by relentless Israeli bombing over the last two years. You can watch it live here:
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Biden commends Trump for getting 'renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line'
The former US president Joe Biden has commended Donald Trump on his Gaza plan, saying it put an end to the “unimaginable hell” of the last living 20 hostages who were being held by Hamas and brought a chance of peace to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
In a post on X, he wrote:
I am deeply grateful and relieved that this day has come – for the last living 20 hostages who have been through unimaginable hell and are finally reunited with their families and loved ones, and for the civilians in Gaza who have experienced immeasurable loss and will finally get the chance to rebuild their lives.
The road to this deal was not easy. My Administration worked relentlessly to bring hostages home, get relief to Palestinian civilians, and end the war. I commend President Trump and his team for their work to get a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line.
Now, with the backing of the United States and the world, the Middle East is on a path to peace that I hope endures and a future for Israelis and Palestinians alike with equal measures of peace, dignity, and safety.
During his presidency, Biden, a Democratic president, supplied Israel with vast amounts of weaponry that was used to devastating effect across the territory, killing tens of thousands of people, many of whom were civilians.
The US also gave Israel key diplomatic shelter that helped enable Benjamin Netanyahu to continue a war many legal scholars have said is a genocide.
Trump regularly criticises Biden – especially on foreign policy issues – and has called him the worst president in the histroy of the US.
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Hamas deploys armed fighters and police across parts of Gaza
Jason Burke is the Guardian’s international security correspondent
Hamas has started deploying armed fighters and police across parts of Gaza in an apparent attempt to reassert authority in the devastated Palestinian territory after the ceasefire deal agreed with Israel last week.
Images showed dozens of Hamas fighters at a hospital in southern Gaza during the release of Israeli hostages on Monday morning and there were reports of shootings and executions elsewhere in the territory.
Telegram channels associated with Hamas said “collaborators and traitors” had been targeted, a reference to Israel-backed militia in the territory, while Hamas gunmen also engaged in bloody clashes with a powerful local family in Gaza City over the weekend.
The violence is unlikely to immediately threaten the current ceasefire agreement with Israel but raises significant concerns over the disarmament of Hamas, a key though ill-defined provision of the deal, and the challenges that will confront the new stabilisation force of regional troops that is to be deployed to Gaza.
You can read the full story here:
Iran says Trump’s call for peace with Tehran is 'at odds' with US actions
Speaking at the Knesset – the Israeli parliament – yesterday, Donald Trump said the US is prepared to make a deal with Iran when Tehran is ready.
Tehran and Washington held five rounds of nuclear talks, prior to Israel’s 12-day war Iran in June, which Washington joined by striking key Iranian nuclear sites.
The talks faced major stumbling blocks such as the issue of uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, which western powers want to bring down to zero, a plan that Tehran has rejected.
“We are ready when you are and it will be the best decision that Iran has ever made, and it’s going to happen,” Trump told Israeli parliamentarians yesterday, referring to a deal with Iran.
“The hand of friendship and cooperation is open. I’m telling you, they (Iran) want to make a deal … it would be great if we could make a deal,” he said.
Iran said this morning that Trump’s call for a peace deal with Tehran was inconsistent with Washington’s actions, referring to its strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June.
“The desire for peace and dialogue expressed by the US president is at odds with the hostile and criminal behaviour of the United States towards the Iranian people,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“How can one attack the residential areas and nuclear facilities of a country in the midst of political negotiations, kill more than 1,000 people including innocent women and children, and then demand peace and friendship?” the foreign ministry asked.
Tehran accused the US of being “a leading producer of terrorism and a supporter of the terrorist and genocidal Zionist regime”.
Iran has insisted it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons but western countries have said they are not convinced of Tehran’s claim its nuclear programme has purely peaceful purposes.
The two-state solution would see an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza that would exist alongside Israel.
This Palestinian state would broadly be drawn along the lines that existed prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and would have east Jerusalem as its capital.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution.
“In fact, they effectively had a Palestinian state – in Gaza. What did they do with that state? Peace? Co-existence?” the Israeli prime minister told the UN general assembly last month.
“No, they attacked us time and time again, totally unprovoked, they fired rockets into our cities, they murdered our children, they turned Gaza into a terror base from which they committed the October 7 massacre,” he added, referring to the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel two years ago, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
Around three-quarters of the 193 UN member states recognise the Palestinian state proclaimed in 1988 by the exiled Palestinian leadership.
The US, Israel’s closest ally, criticised the decision last month by allies including Britain, Australia and Canada to recognise Palestine as a state.
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Trump hopes for the 'rebuilding of Gaza' and says he has not made up his mind on two-state solution
We have some comments made by Donald Trump on his way back from the Egyptian summit where Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US signed a declaration as guarantors of the ceasefire deal which is aimed at ending Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.
When asked on Air Force One if his deal and the return of all 20 living Israeli hostages could lead to a Palestinian state, Trump said:
We’re talking about rebuilding Gaza. I’m not talking about single state or double state or two-state. We’re talking about the rebuilding of Gaza.
A lot of people like the one-state solution. Some people like the two-state solutions. We’ll have to see. I haven’t commented on that.
According to the Sharm el Sheikh declaration, the signatories pledged to “pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security and shared prosperity in the region”, and also welcomed “the progress achieved in establishing comprehensive and durable peace arrangements in the Gaza Strip”.
But the statement was extremely vague about the path ahead for a sustainable peace between Israel and its neighbours, including the Palestinians, making no mention of a one- or two-state solution.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who co-chaired the summit with Trump, said the Gaza deal “closes a painful chapter in human history” and sets the stage for a two-state solution.
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Israelis and Palestinians celebrate hostage and detainee releases as key truce issues remain
Israel and Hamas moved ahead on a key first step of the tenuous Gaza ceasefire agreement on Monday by freeing hostages and detainees, raising hopes that the US-brokered deal might lead to a permanent end to the devastating two-year war.
But contentious issues such as whether Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza remain unresolved, highlighting the fragility of the truce.
In key developments:
Hamas released the remaining 20 living hostages in Gaza on Monday as part of a swap deal for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees in a rare moment of joy among Israelis and Palestinians.
World leaders from more than 20 countries later met in Egypt at a summit co-chaired by Donald Trump and Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to try to ensure the limited truce is extended into a durable peace.
“At long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” Trump declared at the meeting, with his counterparts lined up behind him. The US president signed a joint declaration with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey intended to turn the ceasefire into a coherent peace plan, amid widespread anxiety over how long the truce will last. Representatives from Israel and Hamas were absent from the signing ceremony.
In Israel, Trump addressed the Knesset (parliament) earlier on Monday, urging lawmakers to seize a chance for broader peace in the region and saying a “long nightmare” for both Israelis and Palestinians was over.
In Tel Aviv an estimated 65,000 Israelis in “Hostages Square” cheered when a military helicopter carrying the 20 freed Israelis flew overhead en route to hospital. Live footage of their release and family reunions was broadcast at the square. The bodies of four hostages held in Gaza and handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas on Monday were brought back to Israel, the army said.
A large crowd also massed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis on Monday to celebrate the return of nearly 1,700 Palestinians detained over the course of the war, while in the West Bank capital of Ramallah people welcomed the arrival of 88 Palestinian detainees who had been serving life sentences imposed by Israeli courts. About 160 more were deported through Egypt after their release.
The UN warned that Gaza still needed “lifesaving aid”. Aid deliveries had begun arriving in Gaza and far more were poised to enter in the coming days, said the UN’s humanitarian relief branch, OCHA.
The ceasefire appeared to be holding in Gaza on Monday after a two-year Israeli military onslaught that has killed nearly 68,000 people following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
The last Gaza ceasefire broke down after two months in March when Israel resumed its offensive. Trump insists his 20-point proposal for maintaining peace and rebuilding Gaza will take root.
With reporting by Julian Borger, Seham Tantesh, Daniel Boffey and the Associated Press
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