Updates: Hamas hands over two Israeli bodies amid fragile Gaza ceasefire

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You can keep up to date with our latest coverage of the war here.

Read our story on Israel’s use of US PR firms during its war in Gaza here.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a look at the day’s main developments:

• Hamas has returned the bodies of two more Israeli captives from Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement; Israel identified the remains as those of Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, as 11 captives’ bodies still remain in the bombarded Palestinian enclave.
• The Israeli military has continued to carry out attacks in the Strip, with aerial bombings reported near southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
• Palestinians across the occupied West Bank continue to face a wave of intensified Israeli army and settler violence, with the UN reporting more than 125 attacks in the context of this year’s olive harvest.
• Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has instructed the armed forces to confront any further Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon amid an uptick in Israeli attacks.

At least one child was injured by live Israeli fire during a raid on the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

According to Wafa, citing local sources, Israeli forces stormed Silwad, and clashes broke out at the entrance to the town.

During the clashes, ammunition, toxic gas bombs and sound bombs were fired, which resulted in a child being hurt.

Israeli forces also prevented an ambulance from transporting the injured child, before they were eventually allowed to be taken away.

The Israeli military said by noon on Wednesday that it was returning to the ceasefire in line with instructions from the political leadership, but remained ready to attack again if necessary.

It said it hit more than 30 targets in the besieged enclave, claiming that the targets were “terrorists in command positions within terror organisations”.

But as more residential buildings were flattened by the Israeli bombs, at least 18 members of the same family in central Gaza – including children, parents and grandparents – were among the victims.

Civil defence teams once again had to use small tools and their hands to dig in the rubble of bombed areas to search for survivors and the dead. Several tents belonging to displaced Palestinian families were also targeted.

Read our explainer here. 

Defense for Children International – Palestine has shared the story of 16-year-old Yousef, who survived an Israeli attack in Gaza but had both of his legs amputated.

“I was heading home when a bomb from a quadcopter struck me. I lost consciousness and later woke up in the [hospital],” Yousef said in a video posted on social media.

“What did I do to deserve being bombed? I’m just a child, and my entire future and dreams have been destroyed.”

"What have we done wrong as children?" asks Yousef, 16, who is learning how to navigate displacement as a double amputee after surviving an Israeli attack in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/SJC7wqhppa

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) October 30, 2025

A classified US government watchdog report has found “many hundreds” of possible human rights violations by Israeli military units in Gaza that would take the State Department years to investigate, The Washington Post is exclusively reporting.

“The findings by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General mark the first time a US government report has acknowledged the scale of Israeli actions in Gaza that fall under the purview of Leahy Laws,” the Post said.

That, in turn, has raised concerns about the prospect of accountability for Israeli rights violations, the newspaper reported.

The Leahy Laws prohibit the US government from providing assistance to foreign military units that commit gross violations of human rights.

But Washington has refused to apply the laws to Israel, with both Trump and his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden, continuing to funnel military assistance to Israel despite widespread reports of abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

For more on the Leahy Laws, check out this explainer from last year.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has responded to Israel’s UN ambassador after he called her a “witch” while she presented her latest report on Gaza.

In the report, Albanese called out dozens of countries she says are complicit in Israel’s genocide through military, economic and diplomatic assistance.

“You’re the one accused of genocide. If then if the worst thing you can accuse me for is witchcraft, I take it,” she said.

See more in the video below.

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Doctor Mohammad Mustafa spoke to Al Jazeera’s Centre Stage podcast about the horrific realities he witnessed during his volunteer postings in Gaza.

The Australian emergency physician of Palestinian heritage witnessed the impact of Israel’s war on Gaza and the immense pressure of making life-and-death decisions.

Listen to the discussion below:

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations is facing growing calls to retract and apologise for recent ad hominem attacks against Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Speaking at the UN earlier this week, Danny Danon called Albanese – who has been a prominent voice denouncing Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide – a “witch”.

“I call on Israel to retract and apologise for this sexist and hateful attack” against Albanese, another UN special rapporteur, Ben Saul, wrote in a social media post. “Such language is completely unacceptable in international diplomacy.”

UN chief Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric was also asked yesterday about the Israeli envoy’s comments, which he described as “shocking to say the least”.

“We have always felt that special rapporteurs are an important part of the international human rights mechanism,” Dujarric said. “They are UN officials when they do their work and they need to be respected when they do their work – whether it’s legally or verbally.”

Israeli forces have conducted raids in a refugee camp and a village near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

According to Palestinian media, soldiers stormed the village of Rujeib and fired stun grenades, southeast of Nablus.

The Wafa news agency also reported that soldiers stormed the New Askar refugee camp, east of Nablus city, and fired tear gas canisters near the entrance to the camp.

The British government announced it will provide 4 million pounds ($5.26m) towards international efforts to clear an estimated 7,500 tonnes of unexploded munitions in Gaza.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the funding for the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) will help to send in a “surge” of experts to clear the munitions dropped during the course of the war.

It added that removing the unexploded ordnance to allow for more aid into Gaza is “a vital component” of the ceasefire agreement.

“The situation in Gaza is desperate without the vital humanitarian support they need,” said Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who is expected to visit the Middle East this week.

“We must do everything we can to flood Gaza with aid,” she added.

The new funding for UNMAS is part of 116 million pounds ($152.4m) of overseas aid pledged by the UK for occupied Palestinian territory this financial year.

A teenage boy has fallen to his death during a mass ultra-Orthodox Jewish rally against military conscription in Jerusalem, which had shut down the main entrance to the city.

Packed crowds of mostly men clogged the roads around the Route 1 highway leading into Jerusalem. Israeli media estimated that about 200,000 people flocked to the rally.

Photos showed some had climbed atop roofs of buildings, a petrol station and onto cranes. The Israeli ambulance service said a 15-year-old fell to his death, and police said they had opened an investigation into the incident.

The debate over mandatory military service, and those who are exempt from it, has long caused tensions within Israel’s deeply divided society and has placed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under increasing political strain over the past year.

While ultra-Orthodox seminary students have long been exempt from mandatory military service, many Israelis fume at what they see as an unfair burden carried by the mainstream who serve.

That frustration only intensified during wars over the past two years that exacted the highest Israeli military death toll in decades as fighting stretched from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran.

We’ve spoken with Soren Blau at the International Commission on Missing Persons about the challenges teams face in trying to locate and identify many of the deceased in Gaza.

See more in our interview below.

The Palestinian group has slammed reports that Israel plans to approve nearly 2,000 new illegal Israeli settlement units in the occupied West Bank, describing the move as a “dangerous escalation”.

The far-right Israel National News reported that the units are set to be approved in the occupied West Bank as part of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s push to expand Israel’s hold on the West Bank.

It also comes less than two weeks after the Israeli Parliament advanced a motion seeking to formally annex the Palestinian territory, drawing international condemnation.

“These settlement plans constitute a blatant violation of international law and UN resolutions,” Hamas said, adding that they also confirm that Israel “is proceeding with its creeping annexation project on the ground, disregarding all international demands and warnings”.

Experts say Israel maintains a system of de facto annexation over the West Bank, controlling all aspects of Palestinian life and further entrenching its military occupation of the area. But far-right Israeli politicians have pushed for formal annexation in the shadow of the Gaza war.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claims Hezbollah is continuing to “intensify its efforts to rebuild and rearm”.

After meeting with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis, Saar wrote on X that Hezbollah’s possible rebuilding was “dangerous for Israel’s security just as it is for Lebanon’s future”.

“Israel cannot bury its head in the sand in the face of this trend. I reiterated our will to expand the circle of normalisation and peace in the Middle East,” he added.

Glad to meet with United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon @JeanineHennis. Hezbollah, with Iran’s support, continues to intensify its efforts to rebuild and rearm. This is dangerous for Israel’s security just as it is for Lebanon’s future.
Israel cannot bury its head in the… pic.twitter.com/dApS3tbB3w

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) October 30, 2025

Israel has contracted at least three public relations companies to bolster its image online and among the US’s Christian right, filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) show.

According to US Department of Justice records, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hired the newly established Bridges Partners, the Christian PR agency Show Faith by Works, and the online consultancy Clock Tower X via the European Havas Media Group.

All of the companies contracted promise to help bolster the country’s online image and restore support among young right-wing and Evangelical US voters that polling suggests is haemorrhaging as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Read more here.