UN spokesman says reported torture of Palestinian detainees ‘extremely concerning’

UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, says reports that Palestinian bodies returned to Gaza this week show signs of torture “are extremely concerning”.

“And as we’ve said many times, there will need to be accountability for all the violations of international law we’ve seen during this conflict,” Dujarric said during a news conference, without going into more specifics about the allegations.

As we’ve been reporting, authorities in Gaza say the bodies of Palestinians who were held in Israeli detention show marks of violence, including possible executions.

Guterres, eternally concerned, does nothing.

Bodies of Palestinian prisoners sent by Israel unrecognisable: Gaza hospital director

Mohammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza’s Health Ministry, has spoken to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic about the “clear signs of torture” found on the bodies of Palestinians that were returned to the Gaza Strip this week.

“One body shows signs of hanging with a rope still wrapped around the neck, blindfolds around the eyes and bound hands. That martyr was placed as is and sent to us,” Zaqout said from Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Zaqout added that many of the bodies are unrecognisable, and only six killed Palestinian prisoners transferred from Israel have been identified so far.

Israeli FM says Rafah crossing to ‘likely open’ on Sunday

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza “will likely open” this Sunday, according to remarks carried by Italy’s ANSA news agency.

Speaking during a press briefing at the Med Dialogues conference in Naples, Saar said that Israel is “making all the necessary preparations” while also coordinating with the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM), tasked since 2005 with supporting movement at the Gaza-Egypt border.

Saar also said preparations were being coordinated with “Palestinians themselves”, without providing further details.

More stalling. This peace plan has been in the works for months.

UNICEF says Israel must ‘open all the crossings now’

UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram says Palestinians in northern Gaza are in “desperate need” of food and water as thousands have returned to total destruction.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from the al-Mawasi area in the south of the Gaza Strip, Ingram said that in order to scale up humanitarian aid deliveries, multiple crossings into the enclave must be opened.

“The stakes are really high,” she said. “There are 28,000 children who were diagnosed with malnutrition in July and August alone, and thousands more since then. So, we need to make sure it’s not just food coming in, but malnutrition treatments, as well.”

Ingram added that while UNICEF has been clear that aid should not be used as a political bargaining chip, assistance to Gaza has been severely restricted over the past two years, and UN agencies were sidelined.

“This [ceasefire] is our opportunity to overcome all of that, to turn it right. That is why Israel has to open all of the border crossings now, and they have to let all of the aid into the Gaza Strip at scale alongside commercial goods,” she said.

On World Food Day, Israel continues to restrict aid into Gaza

Despite a ceasefire deal with Israel, Palestinians across the devastated Gaza Strip continue to go hungry as food supplies remain critically low and aid fails to reach those who need it most.

As per the ceasefire agreement, Israel was supposed to allow 600 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza per day. However, Israel has since reduced the limit to 300 trucks per day, citing delays in retrieving bodies of Israeli captives buried under the rubble by Israeli attacks.

According to the UN2720 Monitoring and Tracking Dashboard, which monitors humanitarian aid being offloaded, collected, delivered and intercepted on its way into Gaza, from October 10-16, only 216 trucks have reached their intended destinations inside Gaza.

According to truck drivers, aid deliveries are facing significant delays, with Israeli inspections taking much longer than expected.

Satellite images captured by Planet Labs on October 14 and 15 show a large number of trucks queueing on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and heading towards the Karem Abu Salem crossing.

It's better than before at least

No more than 480 aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday: Media Office

Gaza’s Government Media Office says that, of those, three trucks transported cooking gas while another six brought diesel fuel into the Gaza Strip.

Those supplies were “designated for operating bakeries, generators, and hospitals, amid the acute shortage of these essential materials” due to Israel’s blockade and genocide, it said.

“We note that the quantities that entered remain very limited, representing only a drop in the ocean of urgent needs, and they do not meet even the minimum humanitarian and livelihood requirements of more than 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip,” the office added, noting that at least 600 aid trucks are needed per day.

Gaza ceasefire presents ‘vital window’ for aid: WFP

Samer Abdeljaber, the World Food Programme’s Middle East and North Africa director, says the UN agency is using “every minute” of the ceasefire to ramp up its work in Gaza.

“We are scaling up to serve the needs of over 1.6 million people,” Abdeljaber said in a video shared on social media, adding that WFP hopes to get nearly 30 bakeries and 145 food distribution points operating.

“This is the moment to keep access open and make sure the aid keeps flowing,” he said.

From #Rafah Crossing, @SamerWFP shares a moment of hope.
The ceasefire lets @WFP and partners scale up food, bread & nutrition aid for 1.6M in #Gaza reopening bakeries & distribution points.

Needs are immense. The ceasefire must hold. pic.twitter.com/Ol3Jn5XeHr

— WFP in the Middle East & North Africa (@WFP_MENA) October 16, 2025

Israel’s exploding robots still terrorise Gaza neighbourhoods

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas brought thousands of people back to their homes in Gaza City, to assess the damage, see what can be salvaged, and start to rebuild.

In Jabalia, Sheikh Radwan, Abu Iskandar and beyond, people returned to flattened neighbourhoods, and to the knowledge that, still among the rubble, some of the explosive robots that had caused it sat, silent and undetonated.

People aren’t sure where all the undetonated robots lurk, nor do they know what to do if they encounter one, adding to the anguish and uncertainty that clouds this homecoming.

The “robots” had become a common fear in northern Gaza since the Israeli army first used them on Jabalia refugee camp in May 2024.

Their deployment hit an “unprecedented pace” leading up to the October ceasefire, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor noted in a report on September 1, adding that they were used to destroy “about 300 residential units daily in Gaza City and Jabalia”.

The robots are armoured carriers that Israeli soldiers would load with explosives, then drag into place using armoured bulldozers. Once the soldiers had retreated, they would remotely detonate the booby-trapped vehicle, destroying everything around it.

Not much is known about the payload – or if it was ever consistent – Gaza City Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera. However, their destructive capacity was apparent, Bassal said, describing the robots’ “kill radius” which he said extended as far as 500 metres (550 yards).

The damage to infrastructure, he added, was “staggering”.


_{Palestinians shelter in a building of the Islamic University in Gaza City, October 16}

Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinian boy dead in West Bank: Ministry

The Palestinian Health Ministry says the 11-year-old has been shot dead by Israeli forces in the town of ar-Rihiya, near Hebron, in the south of the occupied West Bank.

The ministry identified the boy as Muhammad Bahjat al-Hallaq.

Palestinians have faced an intensified wave of Israeli military and settler violence across the West Bank in the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Israeli forces raid two towns in occupied West Bank

Video footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking team shows Israeli forces storming the town of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya city, in northern occupied West Bank. There, troops raided several homes without making any arrests.

In a separate incident, Israeli forces entered Beit Furik, east of Nablus. Verified footage shows Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in the streets of the town, where clashes erupted between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, the number of the Israeli army’s raids, mass arrests and home demolitions has sharply increased to uproot Palestinians from their homes.

Israeli army says it killed Palestinian person in occupied West Bank

The Israeli army says it has killed a Palestinian person who it claimed had hurled an explosive device towards Israeli soldiers during a military raid in the city of Qabatiya in the northern occupied West Bank.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, at least 969 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.


More than 3,200 Palestinians injured in West Bank this year: UN

The UN’s humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) says that represents an increase of about 28 percent compared with the same period last year.

As we’ve been reporting, Israeli military and settler violence has soared across the occupied West Bank amid Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

In its latest update on the situation, OCHA said at least 71 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians were documented between October 7 and October 13 alone.

These attacks resulted in casualties, property damage or both, the UN agency said, while more than half of them – 36 in total – occurred in the context of the Palestinian olive harvest that began this month.

Israel confirms attack on Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley

We reported earlier based on various Lebanese media reports that an Israeli air raid struck the town of Shmestar in northeastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and a drone hit the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa in the south of the country.

Now, the Israeli military says its Air Force “struck and dismantled underground Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in which weapons were stored in the area of Bekaa and southern Lebanon”.

That will be the same excuse to keep on carrying out strikes on Gaza. No proof needed, just say terror tunnel and the western media will agree.

Hezbollah urges Lebanese gov’t to do more to curb Israeli attacks

The armed group’s parliamentary bloc, Loyalty to the Resistance, says it has become clear that Israel’s daily strikes in Lebanon aim to prevent reconstruction in the south of the country after last year’s devastating assault by Israel.

The Israeli military has been frequently targeting construction equipment and assassinating engineers in south Lebanon, and the Hezbollah-affiliated lawmakers called on the Lebanese government to “redouble its efforts” to stop the attacks.

“The government can mobilise its diplomacy across the world and mobilise its international friendships to condemn the Zionist enemy and its crimes against Lebanon and its citizens,” the bloc said in a statement.

It welcomed the complaint Lebanon submitted at the UN about Israeli strikes that targeted a heavy machinery dealership last week, but said more must be done.

The Lebanese government issued a decree earlier this year to disarm Hezbollah, but the group has refused to give up its weapons, arguing that they are necessary to protect Lebanon against Israeli expansionism.

Israel claims responsibility for attacks on civilian sites in southern Lebanon

The Israeli military says its forces struck a quarry “a short while ago” in the village of Mazraat Sinai in southern Lebanon, claiming the civilian site was being used by the Hezbollah armed group “to rebuild and re-establish its assets and terrorist infrastructure”.

The army also acknowledged an attack on another civilian infrastructure used by Green Without Borders, an environmental organisation, claiming the site was used “to conceal terrorist activity aimed at rebuilding Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, under a civilian guise”.

Main events on October 16th

Francesca Albanese Issues a Damning Indictment at Gâza Tribunal Sending Shockwaves Globally!

The Death Toll In Gaza Rises, Despite Ceasefire

The Israel-Hamas ceasefire is looking shaky. Plus: Investigating the US and UK military industrial complex, and the union leader accused of harassment and heading up a ‘sexist boys club’.

EXPOSED: Israel is Still Detaining HUNDREDS of Gaza's Medics | Dr Mohammed Ashraf

During the last two years of Israel's genocide on Gaza, the Israeli Occupation Forces have unlawfully detained over 409 Palestinian healthcare workers from both Gaza and the West Bank.

There are at least 115 more Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza who are still being held in Israeli detention. These include at least 20 doctors, of whom 15 are irreplaceable senior specialists.

Dr Mohammed Ashraf if a Palestinian doctor from Gaza. Over several months during Israel's genocide he treated hundreds of Gaza's patients at the al-Shifa and al-Kuwaiti Hospitals, including undertaking a lower-leg amputation on a child with no anaesthetic because of a shortage of medical supplies due to Israel’s illegal blockade.

Ahmed Alnaouq is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza and co-founder of We Are Not Numbers.

Hamas says it is committed to ceasefire deal

The Palestinian group has reiterated its commitment to ending the war in Gaza, maintaining the ceasefire and initiating the reconstruction of the enclave.

“As a movement, we are committed to the implementation of the agreement, which guarantees the cessation of war, the protection of our people from attacks, and the commencement of reconstruction,” Hamas’s leader in the occupied West Bank, Zahir Jabbarin, said in a televised statement.

“We do not accept any international tutelage over our people.”

He also said that it was time for the Palestinian people to be recognised for their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state.

Jabbarin stressed: “Today, the world faces a real test. Those who want to bring peace to the region must implement the unified stance of the international community, ensure the establishment of the State of Palestine, resolve the issue of prisoners, and ensure the release of all remaining prisoners without fighting.”

The agreement mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US was signed in Egypt, where the negotiations between Israel and Hamas were held, and the deal came into effect on October 10 with the approval of the former.

Israeli forces shell north Gaza

Our team on the ground reports that the Israeli army is still shelling the eastern areas of northern Gaza’s Shujayea, despite the ceasefire.

Yesterday, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks, some of the nearly two dozen who have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect on October 10.

Israeli military marking along ceasefire’s ‘yellow line’ in Gaza: Katz

The Israeli military has begun marking the so-called “yellow line” – the line to which Israel’s military pulled back to under the ceasefire deal, Minister of Defence Israel Katz has said in a post on X.

The line is to warn Hamas and Gaza residents “that any violation or attempt to cross the line will be met with fire”, Katz said.

The Israeli military has already opened fire on people it claimed crossed the line, killing several Palestinians in the days since the ceasefire, despite no markings on the ground before this latest announcement.

According to a rough map shared by Trump, the yellow line leaves about 58 percent of Gaza under Israeli control, as verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad team.

And the 42% left is mostly sand dunes, desert and rubble. All agricultural land (which needs to be rehabilitated first, 92% destroyed) is all inside the militarized occupied kill zone area.

Aid flow into Gaza not enough as Israel keeps trucks waiting

Aid trucks have been waiting at the Kissufim crossing between Gaza and Israel since the early hours of the morning. This is one of the crossings where trucks enter Israel, load aid from the Israeli side, and return to deliver the commodities they are carrying.

Trucks wait for hours and hours for the green light from the Israeli side to access the crossing.

There are supposed to be 600 aid trucks entering Gaza every day, but the actual number is fewer than 300. Even 600 trucks are not enough, considering the demand on the ground.

There are also many restrictions on the quantity and content of certain commodities. Sometimes they go to the Israeli side and return empty.

_{With famine conditions present in parts of Gaza, UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher said thousands of aid vehicles would now have to enter Gaza weekly to ease the crisis, with medical care also scarce and most of the 2.2 million population displaced}

UNRWA warns of unaffordability of goods flowing into Gaza

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says on X that the toll Israel’s two-year campaign of destruction has taken on Gaza’s farmlands has left many families without income.

“A kilo of tomatoes that once cost 60¢, now costs $15 – if found at all”, the agency said. “Families who once lived from their land now have no income.”

The trucks seen making their way into Gaza since the implementation of the ceasefire one week ago largely carry commercial goods, not humanitarian aid, our team on the ground reports.

This leaves many families unable to access the fresh food they desperately need. “Until Gaza’s agricultural sector can be rebuilt, there must be an unrestricted flow of aid,” UNRWA said.

All on purpose, let the commercial trucks in, make money off them while getting pictures out of fully stocked market stalls since hardly anyone has any access left to money to buy the produce.


WFP says it has 3-month supply of food for Gaza

The UN’s food agency says it has enough food to feed all of Gaza for 3 months.

“To keep going – and reach everyone – we need lasting access and a stable operating environment,” the World Food Programme said. “The ceasefire must hold. We cannot go back.”

WFP is scaling up food assistance in #Gaza. We have the food, the teams and the networks to feed all of Gaza for 3 months.

To keep going — and reach everyone — we need lasting access and a stable operating environment.

The ceasefire must hold. We cannot go back.

— World Food Programme (@WFP) October 17, 2025

About 560 tonnes of food entered Gaza daily since ceasefire but more needed: WFP

The UN World Food Programme says it has brought in about 560 tonnes of food per day on average into Gaza since the ceasefire began, but the amount is still below what is needed.

“We’re still below what we need, but we’re getting there … The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of opportunity, and WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale up food assistance,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told reporters in Geneva.

The UN agency earlier today said it has enough food to feed all of Gaza for three months.

That's 28 trucks avg daily, about 250 grams of food per person daily. Still well below the 1.5 kg daily needs per person. Plus another 1.5 to 3 liters (same as kg) of drinking water. 

Ceasefire could crumble due to issues over Rafah crossing

The Rafah crossing is a strategic element for Netanyahu, says Andrea Dessi, an assistant professor in international relations at the American University of Rome.

“Israel has no intention … at the time being, of really reopening the crossing and, let alone allowing the Palestinian Authority to return to man the crossing on the Palestinian side,” Dessi told Al Jazeera, speaking from Rome, Italy.

The crossing is a vital lifeline for aid and medical evacuations, and Israel’s restrictions on it are a violation of international law, he said.

“[But] if we only talk about evacuations for medical reasons, this could also be construed as contributing to the diluting of the Palestinian population in Gaza, or the ethnic cleansing of the population in Gaza, so Egypt, but also other actors, Turkey, Qatar, as well as the Europeans, really should step up and coordinate amongst themselves to present a united front vis-a-vis both Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu,” Dessi added.

“There is a serious risk that this plan will not even see its fruition because of the issues at the Rafah crossing. So it would be in the interest of everyone to resolve this issue quickly.”

Israeli settlers block aid to Gaza

A far-right Israeli group, Tsav 9, is blocking trucks from carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza at the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.

The group, in a post on X, said its members were “currently obstructing the passage of aid trucks” at multiple points en route to the crossing, which is controlled by Israel.

The group claimed that “Hamas violates the agreement and refuses to return hostages, so aid that enables them to rebuild must be halted,” adding: “No aid truck will pass until the last dead is returned.”

The Israeli extremist group posted a video showing its members blocking an aid truck from passing.

Tsav 9 repeatedly disrupted aid deliveries to Gaza during the Israeli genocide by blocking roads leading to crossings, staging protests, and in some cases, looting or damaging aid shipments, according to The Times of Israel.

Hamas has released 20 living Israeli captives and handed over the remains of 10 more captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners under the ceasefire agreement. The Palestinian group has said it is working to recover the remaining bodies of Israeli captives.