“The people of Israel deserve answers about how the terrible failure happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” former prime minister Naftali Bennett published on X/Twitter.
The protest was organized by the October Council, an activist group made up of hundreds of families affected by the massacre.
“The people of Israel deserve answers about how the terrible failure happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who was present at the protest, published on X/Twitter.
Other opposition leaders were present alongside Bennett, including Yair Lapid, Avigdor Liberman, Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, and Yair Golan.
“Tonight in the square, we gathered with one clear call – the establishment of a state commission of inquiry. In our government, this will happen in the first days,” Lapid wrote on X.
In a separate event at Hostage Square, families of the hostages gathered to demand the return of the three missing hostages whose remains are still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Strong message against Netanyahu
“Nine ministers and officials in the government of default and disaster were called this week for the despicable task of training the creep called the ‘Special Investigation Committee.’ Their mission is to ensure that the truth is not investigated and never comes to light,” former MK Yizhar Shai, father of the late Yaron Shai, a Nahal Brigade soldier who fell on October 7, said.
Shai served as an MK for Gantz’s Blue and White party, and was Innovation, Science, and Technology minister.
Lior Akerman, a former brigadier-general who served as a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) division head, said he used to identify with the right-wing policies in Israel, but the current events have made him understand that “the problems are no longer between right and left.”
“For three years now, the government has been attacking and harming the state’s institutions, its security organizations, the legal system, and the law,” Akerman said. He also claimed that the current administration is trampling on the values of statehood, morality, and unity in an effort to create a dictatorship.
GENEVA (AP) — Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest announced plans to change the voting system of the popular musical extravaganza to ensure fairness, a move that follows allegations of “interference” by Israel’s government.
The European Broadcasting Union, a Geneva-based union of public broadcasters that runs the event, said Friday that the changes were “designed to strengthen trust, transparency and audience engagement.”
Israel has competed in Eurovision for more than 50 years and won four times. But calls for Israel to be kicked out swelled over the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza.
The allegations of Israeli government interference have added a new twist to the debate.
In September, Dutch public broadcaster AVROTROS — citing human suffering in the Gaza war — said that it could no longer justify Israel’s participation in the contest. Several other countries took a similar stance.
The Dutch broadcaster went on to say there had been “proven interference by the Israeli government during the last edition of the Song Contest, with the event being used as a political instrument.” The statement didn’t elaborate.
That same month, the CEO of Israeli public broadcaster Kan, Golan Yochpaz, said that there was “no reason why we should not continue to be a significant part of this cultural event, which must not become political.”
Kan also said then that it was “convinced” that the EBU “will continue to maintain the apolitical, professional and cultural character of the competition, especially on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Eurovision” next year.
As part of the new Eurovision measures, in next year’s contest — scheduled to take place in May in Vienna — the number of votes per payment method will be reduced by half to 10, the EBU said.
In addition, “professional juries” will return to the semifinals for the first time since 2022 — a move that will give roughly 50-50 percentage weight between audience and jury votes, it said.
Organizers will also enhance safeguards to thwart “suspicious or coordinated voting activity” and strengthen security systems that “monitor, detect and prevent fraudulent patterns,” EBU said.
Contest director Martin Green said that the neutrality and integrity of the competition is of “paramount importance” to the EBU, its members, and audiences, adding that the event “should remain a neutral space and must not be instrumentalized.”
The EBU’s general assembly on Dec. 4-5 is poised to consider whether Israel can participate next year. A vote on that participation will only take place if member broadcasters decide the new steps are “not sufficient,” Green said.
Israel’s haredi draft crisis intensifies as court ruling forces action, while political divisions and protests make it difficult to see a path forward.
For months, the coalition’s showdown over haredi (ultra-Orthodox) enlistment unfolded like a drama with no final act – all buildup, no climax, and plenty of stalling.
Then came Wednesday, when two developments, one from within the haredi world and one from the High Court of Justice, collided to signal that the era of delay is ending and the crisis is hitting zero hour yet again.
The day began with the Lithuanian rabbinic leadership finally breaking its silence about the controversial haredi conscription bill that has stalled in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
After weeks of internal debate and growing pressure, Rabbis Dov Lando and Moshe Hillel Hirsch issued what can best be described as “a pale green light.”
They authorized Degel Hatorah’s MKs to resume discussions in the committee on what has become known as “the Bismuth draft law,” but they withheld approval of the law itself.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with police outside the IDF Recruitment Center at Tel Hashomer, central Israel, April 28, 2025 (credit: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
They did not endorse any of its provisions. They did not instruct the faction to support it in the plenum. They simply permitted “discussion.”
The timing and phrasing were intentional. This was a gesture toward the coalition, not a commitment.
It was a signal that negotiations could continue, not that haredi leadership was ready to climb down from its long-held insistence that full-time yeshiva students must remain exempt.
It was a way of keeping the door open while ensuring the final decision remained in the rabbis’ hands.
But that cautious gesture – the first sign of movement on the bill in weeks – triggered an immediate response within the coalition itself.
Within minutes of the announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Boaz Bismuth, the committee chair, not to advance the bill.
The reason was obvious: Netanyahu feared walking into a political trap.
Prime Minister Netanyahu risked pushing forward a law without UTJ backing
Without explicit backing from the United Torah Judaism leadership, the prime minister risked pushing forward a law that the haredim themselves might abandon at the last moment, leaving him exposed to anger over a bill that much of the public opposes as not going nearly far enough.
Worse yet, the haredim could still vote against the final version if they decided the sanctions were too harsh, meaning Netanyahu could be left holding a law that offered the public only minimal change and still cost him the coalition.
Netanyahu has made clear that he will not move the legislation forward without a firm commitment of political support. He wants a guarantee, not a rabbinic signal of “permission to discuss.”
And such a commitment is far from assured, given the internal divisions inside Agudat Yisrael and within parts of the haredi world, the eruption of haredi street protests, and the radicalized atmosphere, including intermittent acts of violence against haredi politicians.
If Netanyahu hoped that the rabbis’ statement would buy him some time, he soon found out that time on this issue was no longer on his side.
Because only a few hours after the rabbinic announcement,the High Court of Justice issued what could prove to be one of the most consequential decisions in years in the never-ending legal battle over haredi conscription.
In a sharply worded, unanimous ruling by Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg and four other justices, the High Court demanded that the government do what it has resisted for decades: enforce the law on haredi draft evasion.
The ruling declared that the state must pursue real criminal proceedings against haredi draft evaders, end all benefits linked to draft evasion, and, within 45 days, produce a concrete, effective, and professionally grounded enforcement policy.
Since the exemption law expired in June 2023, there is no longer any legal basis for blanket yeshiva deferments.
In principle, haredi men who are not in service or are individually exempted are now in violation of existing law.
The judges emphasized that the state must quickly reach a point where its criminal enforcement rate against haredi evaders is no lower than the rate applied to all other groups – a seismic shift given the near-nonexistent enforcement of recent years.
This decision leaves no practical room to recreate the elaborate bypass channels that previous governments used to maintain the yeshiva funding system. If a policy enables circumvention – whether through indirect stipends, creative budget transfers, or administrative “filters” – it fails the High Court’s test.
Taken together, the message was unmistakable: The era of symbolic laws, loopholes, and non-enforcement is over. The state must act – not someday, not in theory, but now.
This puts the coalition in an impossible position. On the one hand, advancing a law that meets the High Court’s standard would require sanctions and enforcement measures that the haredi parties have rejected for years.
On the other hand, advancing a law that meets the ultra-Orthodox parties’ demands would almost certainly be struck down again, thrusting Israel back into a constitutional crisis at a time when public patience – and reservists’ stamina – is nearing its limits.
Pressure is also mounting inside the haredi community itself, and not only from the political leadership.
In recent weeks, the crisis has spilled into the streets in the form of angry demonstrations by extremist factions who oppose any compromise on enlistment.
That tension boiled over when Shas MK Yoav Ben-Tzur’s car was attacked on Saturday night by haredi protesters, enraged that Shas was considering agreeing to advance the proposed law.
Windows were smashed; trash was thrown; the scene captured the growing radicalism among groups convinced that even discussing enlistment is a betrayal of principles.
This radicalism matters because it limits the rabbis’ freedom to maneuver.
Leaders not prone in any event to show great flexibility cannot strike compromises if they fear that their own constituents – not secular Israelis, not the High Court, not the opposition, but their own community – will turn on them.
All of this unfolds even as the Bismuth draft itself faces deep structural problems.
The bill’s enlistment targets are minimal, its sanctions weak and riddled with loopholes, and its definition of “haredi” far too liberal.
Facing a shortfall of 10,000-20,000 combat soldiers, the IDF has already testified that the bill does not meet operational needs and relies mainly on recruits who will not serve in combat roles.
In short, Israel faces a draft bill that cannot meet the High Court’s standard nor the army’s needs, and will satisfy neither the haredi leadership nor the general public.
One way or another, it now seems, the era of forever kicking this issue down the road is coming to an end.
The U.N. Security Council on Monday approved a U.S. plan for Gaza that authorizes an international stabilization force to provide security in the devastated territory and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.
Russia, which had circulated a rival resolution, abstained along with China on the 13-0 vote. The U.S. and other countries had hoped Moscow would not use its veto power on the United Nations’ most powerful body to block the resolution’s adoption.
The vote was a crucial next step for the fragile ceasefire and efforts to outline Gaza’s future following two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Arab and other Muslim countries that expressed interest in providing troops for an international force had signaled that Security Council authorization was essential for their participation.
The ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10, but accusations of violations of the terms by both Hamas and Israel had threatened to upend the deal in the weeks since its implementation.
The first phase of the deal called for Hamas to release all living and deceased hostages in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel. While the living hostages were returned by the deadline, the remains of some of the dead hostages had not been handed over — with both Hamas and U.S. officials citing the difficulties in recovering some of the remains amid the destruction in the Gaza Strip — which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said constituted a violation.
There have also been flare-ups of violence in Gaza, including airstrikes from Israel, which it said were in retaliation for Hamas attacks on Israeli forces, since the deal went into effect. International advocates have also accused Israel of not adhering to the requirement to deliver all of the aid it promised to Gaza in the deal.
The U.S. resolution endorses President Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan, which calls for a yet-to-be-established Board of Peace as a transitional authority that Mr. Trump would head. It also authorizes the stabilization force and gives it a wide mandate, including overseeing the borders, providing security and demilitarizing the territory. Authorization for the board and force expires at the end of 2027.
“Congratulations to the World on the incredible Vote of the United Nations Security Council, just moments ago, acknowledging and endorsing the BOARD OF PEACE, which will be chaired by me, and include the most powerful and respected Leaders throughout the World,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media following the U.N. vote. He thanked the members of the Security Council, including Russia and China, and said, “The members of the Board, and many more exciting announcements, will be made in the coming weeks.”
Hamas criticized the U.N.’s adoption of the plan, saying, “Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation,” according to Reuters.
“Any international force, if established, must be stationed solely on the borders to separate the forces and monitor the ceasefire, and must be entirely under the supervision of the United Nations,” Hamas said, according to Al Jazeera.
During nearly two weeks of negotiations on the U.S. resolution, Arab nations and the Palestinians had pressed the United States to strengthen the original weak language about Palestinian self-determination.
The U.S. revised it to say that after the Palestinian Authority — which now governs parts of the West Bank — makes reforms and after redevelopment of the devastated Gaza Strip advances, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
“The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence,” it adds.
That language angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed Sunday to oppose any attempt to establish a Palestinian state. He has long asserted that creating a Palestinian state would reward Hamas and eventually lead to an even larger Hamas-run state on Israel’s borders.
A key to the resolution’s adoption was support from Arab and Muslim nations pushing for a ceasefire and potentially contributing to the international force. The U.S. mission to the U.N. distributed a joint statement Friday with Qatar, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan and Turkey calling for “swift adoption” of the U.S. proposal.
The vote took place amid hopes that Gaza’s fragile ceasefire would be maintained after a war set off by Hamas’ surprise terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people. Israel’s more than two-year offensive has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority are women and children.
Russia last week suddenly circulated a rival proposal with stronger language supporting a Palestinian state alongside Israel and stressed that the West Bank and Gaza must be joined as a state under the Palestinian Authority.
It also stripped out references to the transitional board and asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to provide options for an international force to provide security in Gaza and for implementing the ceasefire plan, stressing the importance of a Security Council role.
The U.S. resolution calls for the stabilization force to ensure “the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip” and “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.” A big question is how to disarm Hamas, which has not fully accepted that step.
It authorizes the force “to use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate” in compliance with international law, which is U.N. language for the use of military force.
The resolution says the stabilization troops will help secure border areas, along with a Palestinian police force that they have trained and vetted, and they will coordinate with other countries to secure the flow of humanitarian assistance. It says the force should closely consult and cooperate with neighboring Egypt and Israel.
As the international force establishes control and brings stability, the resolution says Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza “based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization.” These must be agreed to by the stabilization force, Israeli forces, the U.S. and the guarantors of the ceasefire, it says.
The two discussed Gaza in the context of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the status of Iran’s nuclear program, and more.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed developments in the Middle East in a phone call on Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Kremlin said in a joint statement.
The two focused on the situation in the Gaza Strip, especially regarding the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
The pair also discussed the status of Iran’s nuclear program and issues related to further stabilization efforts in Syria.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that the conversation took place at the Russian leader’s request.
The Kremlin called the conversation “a thorough exchange of views.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin (credit: REUTERS)
Russia, Israel touch base on Gaza War
The two previously spoke on the phone last month about the US brokered ceasefire deal, with the Russian leader reaffirming Moscow’s position “in favor of a comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian issue.”
Like their discussion on Saturday, their conversation last month tackled issues surrounding Iran and Syria. Before October, the two had spoken on the phone in August.
KAN News reported earlier this year that Netanyahu’s office has been working closely with Russia in an effort to resolve several different issues, including the tension between the US and Russia following Putin’s insistence on continuing the war in Ukraine.
This also comes after Russia proposed its own draft of a UN resolution on Gaza on Thursday in a challenge to a US effort to pass its own text at the Security Council that would endorse the US-brokered Gaza deal.
Russia’s UN mission said in a note to Security Council members on Thursday afternoon, seen by Reuters, that its “counter-proposal is inspired by the US draft.”
“The objective of our draft is to enable the Security Council to develop a balanced, acceptable, and unified approach toward achieving a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” the note said.
The Russian draft, also seen by Reuters, requests that the UN Secretary-General identify options for an international stabilization force for Gaza, and does not mention the “Board of Peace” that the US has proposed as a transitional administration for Gaza.
(CNN) — The Israeli military carried out a series of strikes across southern Lebanon on Thursday, saying it was targeting Hezbollah in response to what it described as the militant group’s attempts to rebuild operations in the region.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strikes targeted weapons storage facilities belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. It claimed the group was working to “reestablish terrorist infrastructure” in southern Lebanon.
However, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun claimed the strikes had violated international humanitarian law by targeting civilians and forcing them to flee their homes. He denounced the action as a “fully fledged crime.”
“The more Lebanon expresses its openness to the path of peaceful negotiation to resolve outstanding issues with Israel, the more Israel intensifies its aggression against Lebanese sovereignty,” Aoun wrote on X.
Prior to the strikes, the IDF’s Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adraee had issued multiple warnings to residents of several villages.
“You are located in a building used by Hezbollah. For your safety, you are requested to evacuate immediately to a distance of at least 500 meters from the building. Remaining in the vicinity of these structures endangers your lives,” Adraee said in one of three evacuation notices given Thursday afternoon.
Later Thursday, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it had observed several strikes within its area of operations in southern Lebanon, including in Tayr Dibbah, Taibe, and Ayta al Jabal, and warned the action threatened the safety of civilians.
UNIFIL called on Israel to stop the attacks, which it said constituted “clear violations” of Security Council resolution 1701, a measure that was adopted to end a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006 and which called for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Any military action, especially on such a destructive scale, threatens the safety of civilians and undermines the progress being made toward a political and diplomatic solution,” the statement continued.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah ramped up a day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel, when the Lebanese militant organization launched attacks on Israeli positions in what it said was an act of solidarity. In October 2024, Israel launched what it described as a “a limited ground operation” in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.
In November 2024, a US-brokered ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, under which Israel was to halt offensive operations and gradually withdraw from positions inside southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah was to pull back heavy weaponry north of the Litani River. However, Israel has continued to strike targets in Lebanon, citing Hezbollah violations of the truce, claims the group has denied.
The Lebanese Army said in a short statement Thursday that despite the Israeli strikes, “it remains in close coordination” with UNIFIL and insisted that their partnership still functions on a “high level of trust and cooperation.”
The Israeli security cabinet was expected to convene Thursday evening, according to two Israeli officials. One of the officials told CNN that Lebanon would be among the topics discussed.
The officials said Israel has been warning in recent weeks against what they described as “Hezbollah attempts to rearm and reestablish its offensive capabilities.”
Last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened security consultations with some cabinet ministers to discuss Israeli reactions. According to an Israeli source with knowledge of the discussion, the military recommended launching a wide scale operation against Hezbollah’s alleged rearming attempts.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also said last week that Israel “cannot bury its head in the sand” as Hezbollah “continues to intensify its efforts to rebuild and rearm.”
The Lebanese president made headlines in recent days after suggesting that his country had “no choice” but to negotiate with Israel directly.
“Lebanon has no choice but negotiation, because in politics there are three fields of action: diplomacy, economy and war. When war leads to no result, what else can be done?,” he was cited as saying by local media, widely believed to be referring to Israel.
In a statement on Thursday, Hezbollah accused Israel of repeatedly violating the ceasefire reached in November 2024, and of “blackmailing” the Lebanese government into recognizing Israel.
“(Lebanon) is absolutely not interested in succumbing to aggressive blackmail or being drawn into political negotiations with the Zionist enemy. Such negotiations serve no national interest and pose existential risks to the Lebanese entity and its sovereignty,” it said, affirming the group’s “legitimate right to resist occupation and aggression.”
Israel’s military action comes days after US Special Envoy Tom Barack said Lebanon was a “failed state” run by “dinosaurs.” Barrack voiced doubts about whether authorities will be able to disarm Hezbollah, which he said had more vastly more weapons than Lebanon’s armed forces.
“In our opinion, it’s not reasonable to tell Lebanon, ‘Forcibly disarm one of your political parties.’ Everybody’s scared to death to go into civil war. The idea is: What can you do to have Hezbollah not utilize those rockets and missiles,” he said.
Jerusalem – Palestinian militants have so far released the remains of 20 hostages that were held in Gaza for the past two years as part of the ceasefire agreement in the Israel-Hamas war. But the process of returning the bodies of the last eight remaining hostages, as called for under the U.S. peace plan, is progressing slowly, with militants releasing just one or two bodies every few days.
Hamas says it has not been able to reach all of the remains because they are buried under rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel’s two-year offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s government and the families of the hostages have accused Hamas of dragging its feet, however, and officials have threatened to resume military operations or withhold humanitarian aid if all of the remains are not returned.
In the most recent release, Hamas returned the bodies on Sunday of three troops killed during its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on southern Israel. Israel’s military confirmed that the remains belonged to hostages Omer Neutra, Oz Daniel and Col. Assaf Hamami.
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) vehicle transports the bodies of three Israeli hostages that were handed over by Hamas’ armed wing in Gaza, under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, Nov. 2, 2025.
Stringer/Anadolu/Getty
In return, Israel has so far released the bodies of 270 Palestinians back to Gaza, including 45 handed over on Monday, according to Palestinian media. Israel has not provided any details on their identities, and it is unclear if they were killed in Israel during the attack on Oct. 7, or if they were Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody, or bodies that were taken from Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.
Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify the bodies without access to DNA kits.
Who are the 8 hostages whose remains have not been returned?
Itay Chen was an Israeli American originally from Netanya, in central Israel, who was abducted along with two other members of his tank battalion: Daniel Peretz, who also died, and Matan Angrest, who survived and was released from captivity on Monday. Chen loved basketball and studying human biology, according to the Israeli Hostages Families Forum.
Chen was killed on Oct. 7 and his body was taken to Gaza. His father, Ruby Chen, has met frequently with American leaders about bringing all of the hostages back to Israel, including the remains of the dead. Itay Chen is survived by his parents and two brothers.
Ruby Chen holds up a portrait of his 19-year-old son, American-Israeli IDF soldier Itay Chen, who was then believed to be a hostage in Gaza, as people watch a tribute to victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel, in Tel Aviv, Feb. 7, 2024.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty
Meny Godard was a professional soccer player before enlisting in the Israeli military and serving in the 1973 Mideast War, according to Kibbutz Be’eri. He served in a variety of different positions in the kibbutz, including at its printing press.
On the morning of Oct. 7, Godard and his wife, Ayelet, were forced out of their home after it was set on fire. She hid in the bushes for a number of hours before militants discovered her and killed her. She was able to tell her children that Meny had been killed before she died. The family held a double funeral for the couple. They are survived by four children and six grandchildren.
Hadar Goldin’s remains are the only ones that have been held in Gaza since before the war. The Israeli soldier was killed on Aug. 1, 2014, two hours after a ceasefire took effect ending that year’s war between Israel and Hamas. The military said it was determined that he had been killed in the Oct. 7 attack.
Goldin is survived by his parents and three siblings, including a twin. He had proposed to his fiancée before he was killed. Earlier this year, Goldin’s family marked 4,000 days since his body was taken. The military retrieved the body of another soldier who was killed in the 2014 war earlier this year.
Ran Gvili, who served in an elite police unit, was recovering from a broken shoulder he sustained in a motorcycle accident but rushed to assist fellow officers on Oct. 7. After helping people escape from the Nova music festival, he was killed fighting at another location and his body was taken to Gaza. The military confirmed his death four months later. He is survived by his parents and a sister.
Joshua Mollel was a Tanzanian agricultural student who arrived at kibbutz Nahal Oz only 19 days before Oct. 7. He had finished agricultural college in Tanzania and hoped to gain experience in Israel he could apply at home. Two smaller Palestinian militant groups posted graphic footage on social media showing their fighters stabbing and shooting Mollel, according to a Human Rights Watch report. He is survived by two parents and four siblings in Tanzania.
Dror Or was a father of three who managed the dairy farm on Kibbutz Be’eri and was an expert cheesemaker. On Oct. 7, the family was hiding in their safe room when militants set the house on fire. Dror and his wife, Yonat, were killed. Two of their children were abducted and released during the November 2023 ceasefire.
Sudthisak Rinthalak was an agricultural worker from Thailand who had been employed at Kibbutz Be’eri. According to media reports, Rinthalak was divorced and had been working in Israel since 2017. A total of 31 workers from Thailand were kidnapped on Oct. 7, the largest group of foreigners to be held in captivity. Most of them were released in the first and second ceasefires. Rinthalak is the last of three Thai hostages whose bodies were held in Gaza. The Thai Foreign Ministry has said in addition to the hostages, 46 Thais have been killed during the war.
Lior Rudaeff was born in Argentina and moved to Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak at age 7. He volunteered for more than 40 years as an ambulance driver and was a member of the community’s emergency response team. He was killed while battling militants on the morning of Oct. 7 and his body was brought to Gaza. Rudaeff is survived by four children and three grandchildren.
The official resigned after an investigation was launched into her alleged role in authorizing the release of footage that appeared to show soldiers assaulting a Palestinian detainee.
The Israeli military said it had “begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire” in Gaza after carrying out airstrikes that it said hit “dozens of terror targets and terrorists” in the Palestinian territory. The flare-up of violence on Tuesday sparked fears that the U.S.-brokered peace deal between Israel and Hamas could crumble.
At least 104 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s strikes, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that it would “continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it.”
An Israeli military source said Tuesday that IDF forces had been operating in Rafah, southern Gaza, to dismantle tunnels when enemy fire was directed at a structure and an engineering vehicle, killing Master Sergeant (Res.) Yona Efraim Feldbaum.
Shortly after, anti-tank missiles were fired at a separate armored vehicle and troops in the area, the Israeli military source said.
Hamas denied any involvement in the shooting.
Relatives of Palestinians, including children, said to have been killed in Israeli strikes on central Gaza, mourn as they carry the bodies from the al-Shifa Hospital for burial in Gaza City, Oct. 29, 2025.
Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/Anadolu/Getty
Later Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered Israel’s military to conduct “powerful strikes” in Gaza in response to ceasefire violations by Hamas.
In response, Hamas said it would delay the return of the remains of another hostage that had been expected to take place on Tuesday.
President Trump, who is on a trip to Asia, said Israel was justified in carrying out the strikes against Hamas, telling reporters on Wednesday: “As I understand it, they [Hamas] took out an Israeli soldier, so the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back.”
“Nothing is going to jeopardize” the ceasefire, Mr. Trump added. “You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave.”
On Wednesday, Hamas accused the Israeli military of committing “a large-scale massacre” overnight, “despite the agreement to halt the war.”
Israel’s strikes “reflect a clear lack of respect by the occupation government toward the mediators and guarantor states, which have failed to stop the occupation from continuing its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip,” Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
Mohammed Hasan Abu Daqa, a Palestinian in Khan Younis, told CBS News’ team in Gaza that he believed Israel had breached the truce.
“We call on the Arab nations, on world leaders, on the International community to stand with the people of Gaza,” Abu Daqa said. “The people of Gaza are searching for food. They are searching for water. They are searching for freedom. They are asking for the crossings to be opened and for a decent life like everyone else.”
Israel’s government said Tuesday that a set of partial hostage remains returned by Hamas the previous day belonged to a deceased captive recovered by the military around two years ago.
“After completing the identification process this morning, it was found that last night remains belonging to the fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati, who had been returned from the Gaza Strip in a military operation about two years ago, were returned,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
“This constitutes a clear violation of the [Gaza peace] agreement” by Hamas, Netanyahu’s office said, adding that the prime minister would meet with the heads of Israel’s defense establishment, “during which Israel’s steps in response to the violations will be discussed.”
An Israeli group campaigning for the release of hostages held in Gaza urged authorities to “act decisively” against Hamas, accusing the U.S.- and Israeli-designated terrorist group of violating the peace deal brokered by President Trump by returning only the partial remains of the previously recovered hostage, Ofir Tzarfati, rather than one of the 13 whose bodies remain in Gaza.
A poster showing Ofir Tzarfati, who was declared killed after being kidnapped during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel, is seen at a memorial display of photos of people killed during the attack on the Nova music festival, Nov. 30, 2023, in Re’im, Israel.
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty/Alexi Rosenfeld
“In light of Hamas’ severe breach of the agreement last night … the Israeli government cannot and must not ignore this, and must act decisively against these violations,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents many of the hostage families, said in a statement.
The forum has urged Israel’s leaders to declare Hamas in breach of the peace deal since it started handing over the remains of 28 deceased hostages that had been held in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has said it needs more time, assistance and heavy equipment to locate and recover the remaining 13 bodies still in the Palestinian territory, and that work has ramped up in recent days, with Egypt sending a team to assist and the Red Cross confirming to CBS News on Monday that its staff were accompanying recovery teams on the ground.
President Trump warned on Saturday that he was “watching very closely” to ensure that Hamas returned more bodies within 48 hours.
“Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote on his Truth Social network.
A view shows the heavily damaged Al Nassr neighborhood, where Palestinians struggle to rebuild their lives amid the rubble after a ceasefire agreement in Gaza City, Gaza, Oct. 28, 2025, as many buildings were destroyed and civilian homes and belongings suffered extensive damage.
Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini/Anadolu/Getty
Israeli hostage negotiator and peace campaigner Gershon Baskin told CBS News earlier this month that it was ” very likely that there might be Israeli bodies underneath the rubble” in Gaza, where the Hamas-run government estimates that at least 90% of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
“Some of the deceased hostages may never be found, and that’s part of the reality, but we have to make sure that Hamas is doing everything possible to do it,” Baskin said.
KIRYAT GAT, Israel—On the edge of a small city in southern Israel, a cavernous warehouse is being remade into the headquarters of President
Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
Two hundred U.S. troops working with Israel’s military and other partners have scrambled over the past week to build out a new Civil-Military Coordination Center. It will monitor the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and coordinate the flow of aid and security assistance to Gaza, which lies roughly 20 miles away.
The news media that has misread the Donald Trump–Benjamin Netanyahu relationship every step of the way is doing it again. The latest fixation is on the President’s comments against West Bank annexation, while his analysis on Iran and Qatar go ignored.
President Trump told Time magazine that he won’t let Israel annex the West Bank, and Vice President JD Vance said in Israel that he was personally insulted by two preliminary votes of the Israeli Knesset in the policy’s favor on Wednesday. Both U.S. statements are being taken as a rebuke of Prime Minister Netanyahu, when they are really an assist.
Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader will visit Washington next month and meet President Trump in the Oval Office, people familiar with the matter said, capping a multiyear effort to restore his international standing with a trip that could lay the groundwork for an eventual deal to establish ties with Israel.
The trip by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who last visited the U.S. in early 2018, is scheduled for Nov. 18 and 19, one of the people said. It would come a month after Trump negotiated a cease-fire to end Israel’s two-year war with Hamas in Gaza.
Vice President JD Vance, as well as President Trump’s negotiating team — his son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff — were all in Israel on Tuesday, trying to shore up the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. Before he left for Israel, Vance said bumps in the road to peace were expected.
“There are gonna be fits and starts,” Vance told reporters. “Hamas is gonna fire on Israel, Israel’s gonna have to respond, of course.”
Hamas has denied responsibility for an alleged RPG attack that killed two Israeli soldiers over the weekend. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that it was a Hamas attack, and that the Israeli military responded to the alleged ceasefire violation by dropping almost 169 tons of bombs in Gaza.
“One of our hands holds a weapon, the other hand is stretched out for peace,” Netanyahu told lawmakers on Monday. “You make peace with the strong, not the weak. Today Israel is stronger than ever before.”
The Israeli strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory.
President Trump warned Hamas on Monday against breaching the deal that took months to negotiate.
“They’re gonna behave, they’re gonna be nice,” he said. “And if they’re not, we’re gonna go and eradicate them if we have to.”
Kushner and Witkoff met Monday with Netanyahu, and the Israeli leader’s office said Vance would also meet him this week. The vice president and second lady Usha Vance were greeted upon their arrival Tuesday by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Israel’s Minister of Justice Yariv Levin.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrives at Ben Gurion airport, Oct. 21, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Nathan Howard/Pool/Getty
Vance was scheduled to have a working lunch with Witkoff and Kushner on Tuesday before his meeting with Netanyahu.
The peace process has taken incremental steps forward despite the weekend violence, with Israel returning the remains of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Tuesday following the handover by Hamas on Monday evening of the body of another deceased hostage. As part of the peace deal, a total of 165 Palestinians’ bodies have now been returned to Gaza, many of them former detainees, while all 20 living Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas, along with the remains of 13 deceased captives.
But despite those steps, the long-term viability of Mr. Trump’s peace plan, which he’s said will end nearly eight decades of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, remains less certain.
Ex-Israeli official casts doubt on prospects for Trump’s peace plan
Some Israelis remain skeptical that the Israeli prime minister is genuinely interested in a lasting peace. Among them is fierce Netanyahu critic Alon Pinkas, who served as an advisor to four Israeli foreign ministers.
He told CBS News that Netanyahu signed the peace deal brokered by Mr. Trump, but never really backed its core purpose, or Mr. Trump’s stated goal of securing an enduring peace in the heart of the Middle East.
“This was an agreement he was bullied into,” Pinkas said. “This is an agreement he signed under duress, and now he is developing a new scheme to manipulate Trump.”
Pinkas credited Mr. Trump for doing “something that his predecessors were disinclined or hesitant to do, and that is exert real pressure” on Israel’s leader.
“It worked, but it only worked for the first phase,” Pinkas said, referring to the living Israeli hostages being released and the ceasefire coming into effect.
He said after the weekend’s violence that the deal had been “ostensibly restored, but when Netanyahu says, ‘I’m restoring the ceasefire,’ it’s only because there’s a visit here of the vice president, JD Vance, and because the U.S. sent its envoy.”
Pinkas said he was certain Israeli forces would resume operations in Gaza within days, noting they remained deployed in about half of the Palestinian territory.
Israeli soldiers stand next to vehicles near the Israel-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Oct. 19, 2025.
Amir Cohen/REUTERS
“The hostages are no longer in danger because they were freed, and Hamas was not decisively destroyed, as Mr. Netanyahu promised and boasted and bragged for two years, so I see a serious incentive for Mr. Netanyahu to resume” an offensive against Hamas, Pinkas told CBS News. “Maybe not on a huge scale, given the agreement, but I do see … a local skirmish that becomes a wider flare-up, that then deteriorates or escalates into a full Israeli military operation.”
Hamas’ top negotiator said Tuesday that the group remained committed to the ceasefire agreement. But President Trump’s peace plan calls for the demilitarization of Gaza, and many analysts, including Pinkas, have doubts that Hamas will willingly hand over all its weapons.
“That’s probably the biggest flaw in the agreement,” said Pinkas. “The agreement in and of itself is a good agreement, but in order for an agreement like that to work, it requires good faith, good will, and trust. None of these ingredients exist. In fact, both sides have a vested interest in not progressing beyond the ceasefire.”
“Hamas wants to lure Israel inside [Gaza] into a de-facto occupation, and mount an insurgency and show to the Palestinians that they are the real resistance. And Netanyahu wants to go in because he knows that if everything stops now and there is progress into the next phases, that almost inevitably means that he will be deemed as the guy who failed to defeat Hamas.”
Pinkas said that while the past two years of war have left Hamas defeated militarily and degraded, “Hamas is not done. Hamas are there, and you see those pictures every day. You show them on CBS — Hamas gangs walking around in battle fatigues, armed. That’s not going to cut it politically for Mr. Netanyahu.”
An armed Hamas militant stands guard as a Red Cross vehicle arrives to receive the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages, in Gaza City, Oct. 14, 2025.
Dawoud Abu Alkas/REUTERS
Speaking in a recent interview with CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil, Netanyahu said his government had agreed “to give peace a chance,” but he noted that the conditions of Mr. Trump’s 20-point peace plan “are very clear — it’s not only that we get the hostages out without getting our military out, but that we would subsequently have both demilitarization and disarmament. They’re not the same thing. First Hamas has to give up its arms. And second, you want to make sure that there are no weapons factories inside Gaza. There’s no smuggling of weapons into Gaza.”
“We also agreed: Okay, let’s get the first part done. Now let’s give a chance to do the second part peacefully, which is my hope,” the Israeli leader told CBS News.
The fragile peace deal President Trump spearheaded between Israel and Hamas in Gaza appeared on Monday to have survived serious threats over the weekend. The top U.S. officials who helped negotiate the ceasefire and hostage release agreement — senior envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — were back in Israel on Monday to help ensure it does not unravel.
Israel struck multiple targets inside Gaza after a deadly attack on Israeli soldiers. Hamas has rejected Israel’s claim that it was involved in that attack.
On Monday, the skies over Gaza were quiet again in the wake of the gravest threat since the ceasefire there came into effect on Oct. 10. Hamas and Israel accused each other of violating the terms of Mr. Trump’s peace plan over the weekend, but both sides recommitted to the process on Monday.
For a couple tense days, however, war was back in Gaza. Local health officials in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory said 45 people were killed in Israeli strikes. The Israel Defense Forces said, meanwhile, that two soldiers were killed when Hamas operatives opened fire with an RPG.
Israeli soldiers stand next to vehicles near the Israel-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Oct. 19, 2025.
Amir Cohen/REUTERS
As mediators raced to get the peace process back on track, President Trump said the situation would be “handled toughly, but properly,” and added that in his view, the ceasefire remained in effect.
Over the weekend, Palestinian families had come out to enjoy a quiet moment at a seaside café in Gaza, when cameras captured the moment that an Israeli strike shattered the peace.
Many feared the blood-soaked scenes left in the wake of the explosions were a sign that two years of relentless violence had resumed after just a week.
“We were drinking tea,” said Salih Salman, “when suddenly people were bombed.”
Smoke billows following an Israeli strike that targeted a building in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip, Oct. 19, 2025.
EYAD BABA/AFP/Getty
Once again Gaza’s crippled hospitals filled up with dozens of injured in the wake of 1multiple Israeli strikes.
The IDF said it was targeting Hamas forces responsible for ceasefire violations, and it provided video purportedly showing armed Hamas fighters moving toward Israeli troops.
A media center in central Gaza was among the locations bombed, with the strike killing a cameraman and an engineer, and wounding three other people.
“We are all journalists here,” protested Ajeb Mohamed at the scene. “No-one else can even enter here.”
More than 220 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the war started, according to the international advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.
Amid the renewed fighting and accusations over the weekend, an Israeli official said all humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza would be suspended. On Monday, however, COGAT, the Israeli government agency that handles affairs in the Palestinian territories, told CBS News that the Kerem Shalom border crossing was open for aid to transit.
The United Nations and a number of humanitarian aid agencies have called repeatedly since the ceasefire came into effect for Israel to open all of the border crossings into Gaza to allow far more food, water, medicine, building materials and other essential items in.
The ingress of aid — which under the U.S. peace plan should be maximized under the ceasefire — is likely to be among the key issues as Witkoff and Kushner meet with Israeli officials this week to ensure the process stays on track. Vice President JD Vance is also due in Israel this week, and set to meet with Netanyahu.
Netanyahu met Monday with Witkoff and Kushner to discuss “developments and updates in the region,” Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Netanyahu’s office said Monday.
She added that Vance and his wife were also expected in the country “for a few days and will be meeting with the prime minister,” but neither she nor the White House have confirmed the Vances’ arrival date.
Witkoff and Kushner were entrusted by Mr. Trump to broker the peace deal, and in an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, they said an apology phone call from Netanyahu to Qatar’s leader, about unprecedented airstrikes on the U.S. ally’s capital, Doha, and a moment of personal connection between Witkoff and Hamas’ top negotiator marked two key turning points that led to the ceasefire.
Recent incidents between Israel and Hamas have proven just how fragile the ceasefire remains.
Today, Monday, Israel wakes to a bittersweet truth. Every living hostage is home. Too many families, however, welcomed only a coffin. In the past day, Hamas returned additional remains, and the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed through the Red Cross that “Israel has received… the bodies of two hostages.”
The war did not end with the last helicopter landing. Our soldiers are still in harm’s way, and our civilians remain under threat.
Overnight, the IDF reported that Palestinian terrorists in the Rafah area fired on Israeli troops and vowed to “take firm action” in response. A subsequent update said the attackers “fired RPGs and carried out sniper fire” at forces operating there. Independent reporting described Israeli strikes in southern Gaza after militants “attacked Israeli troops with an RPG,” underscoring how fragile the truce remains.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israel’s armed forces to respond with force against Gazan terror targets before later ordering the closure of all Gaza crossings and the halting of all aid into the Strip. The decision comes after an IDF announcement of strikes against Hamas in Rafah after the terror group fired an anti-tank missile and gunfire toward Israeli soldiers.
Netanyahu’s initial order that Israel respond forcefully came during a consultation with Defense Minister Israel Katz and the heads of Israel’s security establishment, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Family and friends mourn at the funeral of Uriel Baruch, in Jerusalem on October 19, 2025. Baruch was taken hostage by Hamas into Gaza on October 7 and murdered in captivity. Hamas released his body to Israel a few days ago. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
This is the moment to be clear about first principles. The deal that brought our people home also requires Hamas to deliver the deceased it can access. It has not. Recent tallies said the latest handover “brings the count of returned bodies to 12,” with “another 16… still to be returned,” and that “all 28 were supposed to have been handed over by last Monday.”
Hamas has told mediators it needs specialist recovery equipment to reach others under the ruins, but that does not erase its obligation to complete what it promised. A promise is a promise. Keep it.
US envoys arrive at inflection point
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff: your visit arrives at an inflection point. Help transform the current outline into enforceable steps with dates, verification, and consequences. Press for third-party monitoring of handovers, coordinated access for recovery teams, and a clear matrix that links continued relief to measurable compliance.
Urge the mediators to treat delays as violations, not as atmospherics. Encourage both sides to keep humanitarian channels open when the guns fall silent and when they do not. The goal is simple and absolutely non-negotiable. Finish the first chapter of this deal before you write the second.
Israel, for its part, must continue treating the fallen with dignity and transparency. The most recent remains were transferred to the National Center of Forensic Medicine for identification. This careful, professional process gives families the truth they deserve.
At the same time, the state must protect its troops and civilians when attacked. The government has instructed the IDF to respond firmly to violations while upholding the ceasefire architecture. This is not belligerence; it is the minimum duty of a state to its soldiers.
A second journey begins
Families of the fallen are now beginning a second journey, one measured in identification updates, funerals, and empty chairs. The state owes them clarity about timelines and respect in its language. That means candid briefings on the painstaking forensic work, timely notification before any public statements, and resources for mourning that do not vanish after the first week.
It also means national solidarity that resists the urge to turn pain into politics. The return of remains is not a public relations milestone. It is a covenant with citizens who entrusted their children to the country and deserve truth, dignity, presence, and accountability.
There is also a broader context that matters. Even as bodies are exchanged, each side accuses the other of testing the truce. Hamas’s line today was to blame Israel for “violations,” while acknowledging that more bodies were being handed over. The facts remain stark. Twenty living Israelis came home. Not all the deceased have. Both can be true, and both demand action.
The moral horizon has not changed since October 7. Kidnapping civilians was a crime. Holding them for two years compounded it. Withholding prolongs the cruelty. Israel is right to insist on the return of every person, alive or deceased. The deal created a path. Stay on it. Finish it. Bring them all back.
TEL AVIV—When President Trumppresented his 20-point plan to bring the Gaza war to an end last month from a White House lectern, he interrupted himself twice to talk directly to someone sitting in the front row: “Right, Ron?” he said.
That man was Ron Dermer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidant and the manager of Israel’s relationship with America—and by extension, Trump. Most Americans don’t know his name and he rarely speaks publicly in Israel. But he is one of the most influential American-born Israeli politicians in the nation’s history and has been key to maintaining U.S. support for the war and cutting a deal to end it largely on Israel’s terms.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza was still holding Thursday despite strains over missing hostages’ remains — including two U.S. nationals — and sporadic violence in the Palestinian enclave since the U.S. peace agreement came into effect almost a week ago.
Mike Waltz, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday that American personnel would be part of the effort to recover the remains of the 19 hostages that have yet to be turned over.
Hamas returned the bodies of two more deceased Israeli hostages Wednesday night, bringing the total number returned to nine. But as video continued to emerge showing the staggering scale of destruction in Gaza, the group said it couldn’t hand over any more remains without specialized equipment to find and retrieve the bodies.
Israeli soldier Capt. Daniel Peretz was among the former hostages laid to rest in solemn ceremonies on Wednesday after his family finally received his body, which was held in Gaza for over two years. Peretz was killed fighting Hamas during the attack on Oct. 7, 2023. For his family, the day brought fresh pain.
Rabbi Doron Peretz and Shelley Peretz hug next to their daughters during the funeral for Daniel Peretz, an Israeli soldier who was captured on Oct. 7, 2023 and whose remains were returned to Israel this week, at Mount Herzl National Cemetery, Oct. 15, 2025, in Jerusalem.
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty/ALEXI ROSENFELN
“It’s a new truth I have to face,” said his sister Adina Peretz. “It’s proof, proof, that you are really gone.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents Israeli hostage families, said this week that the peace process should not move forward until all the bodies are returned.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, in a social media post on Monday, called Hamas’ initial handover of only four bodies “a violation of the agreement,” adding that “any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a gross violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly.”
But senior U.S. advisers speaking to reporters on Wednesday in Washington urged patience, citing the difficulties in retrieving the remains. They said U.S. officials were not at a point where they believed the peace agreement had been violated by either side.
“Many of the Hamas commanders who are responsible for burying these Israeli hostages are no longer alive,” Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin told CBS News on Wednesday. “They were killed by the Israelis.”
Given that fact, and the perilous conditions inside the Palestinian territory, where there are unexploded bombs amid the piles of debris, Baskin said “some of the deceased hostages may never be found, and that’s part of the reality, but we have to make sure that Hamas is doing everything possible to do it.”
Hayam Meqdad, 49, walks on the rubble of her destroyed home amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City, Oct. 15, 2025.
EBRAHIM HAJJAJ/REUTERS
President Trump weighed in on the matter himself on Wednesday, telling reporters the recovery efforts — which international search and rescue experts are expected to join at some point — were “a gruesome process.”
“I almost hate to talk about it,” said Mr. Trump. “But they’re digging. They’re actually digging, areas where they’re digging, and they’re finding a lot of bodies. Then they have to separate the bodies.”
Waltz, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor and the current U.N. ambassador, noted Thursday on Fox News that there were still two American nationals among the deceased hostages in Gaza.
“We will do everything to get them out,” Walz said, adding that there was “an entire task force” including senior American officials, along with 200 U.S. troops, in the region “to help with this and with the aid facilitation, and the Israelis are absolutely focused on it. So, they need heavy equipment. They need specialized gear. But we have to also understand that if this ceasefire falls apart, the fighting starts, that’s going to make it that much harder to find these loved ones and get them out.”
The remains of American-Israeli nationals Itay Chen and Omer Neutra, both of whom were members of the Israel Defense Forces, have yet to be returned from Gaza.
Turkey has offered its assistance in locating and retrieving the remains of the hostages still in Gaza, given the country’s extensive expertise after recent catastrophic earthquakes. No firm plans for such a deployment, from Turkey or any other nation, have been confirmed, but Turkish media said 81 personnel from that country alone could be sent to the region, including ten-person specialist search and rescue units.
Israel said it would return the bodies of 15 Palestinians in exchange for the remains of every hostage handed back by Hamas as part of the peace deal, and the Red Cross has been transferring remains of Palestinians back to Gaza in recent days. But those returns, too, have been mired in controversy.
Morgue workers unload the bodies of Palestinians handed over from Israeli custody after they were transported by Red Crescent vehicles to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Oct. 15, 2025.
Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Getty
“We saw with our own eyes clear signs of torture and execution,” Sameh Hamad, a member of a commission tasked with receiving the bodies at a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told The Associated Press. “Their hands and feet were cuffed, their eyes blindfolded.”
Hamas said in a statement on Thursday that “horrifying scenes seen on the bodies” handed over by Israel included “signs of torture, mutilation, and field executions.”
The group called on human rights organizations and the United Nations “to document these atrocious crimes, to open an urgent and comprehensive investigation, and to bring the leaders of the occupation to trial before the competent international courts.”
Former Israeli hostages have also spoken of torture at the hands of their Hamas captors in Gaza, including Keith Siegel, who was held for over a year.
He told CBS’ 60 Minutes in March that he witnessed the sexual assault of other hostages by Hamas militants, and that he was personally beaten, psychologically tortured and humiliated by his captors.
The Israeli military responded Friday to a CBS News request for comment on the allegations that Palestinian prisoners were tortured, saying that it “operates strictly in accordance with international law, in stark contrast to the murderous terror organization Hamas, which slaughtered civilians, desecrated bodies, and even glorified their actions by publishing their atrocities online.”
The statement added that all of the bodies returned to Gaza thus far were those of “combatants within the Gaza Strip, and not of detainees taken alive to Israel and executed, as mentioned in the article. The IDF did not tie any bodies prior to their release to the Strip.”
