The night Basim Khandakji’s novel won the 2024 “Arabic Booker Prize”, Israeli prison guards stormed his cell, assaulted him, bound his hands and feet, and threatened him.

The 42-year-old was then placed in Ofer Prison’s solitary confinement for 12 days.

It was retaliation, he believes, for embarrassing the Israeli prison system, managing to publish a book under the noses of guards, drawing attention to himself and the conditions he faced.

Now he is out of Israeli prison after serving 21 years of three life sentences. “I still feel like I’m dreaming, and I’m terrified I might wake up and find myself back in a cell,” Khandakji said.

Israeli attack in eastern Lebanon kills 1 person

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli strike in the east of the country has killed a person as a string of deadly attacks continues despite a ceasefire with Israel. The strike targeted a vehicle in the town of Nabi Sheet in the Baalbek region, the ministry said.

We reported earlier that another Israeli attack on a car in Naqoura in the southern district of Tyre also killed one person.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad rejects Israeli claim of planning attack

The Palestinian armed group has rejected an allegation by the Israeli army that it was planning an attack as a “false claim and slander”.

Israel carried out an air strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday, saying it had targeted a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) who was planning to carry out an attack on Israeli soldiers.

In a statement today, the PIJ said the Israeli army’s “claim that Al-Quds Brigades cadres in Nuseirat were preparing yesterday for imminent action is a pure false claim and fabrication through which the occupation seeks to justify its aggression and violation of the ceasefire”.

The PIJ called on the countries mediating the ceasefire to “compel” Israel to stop attacking Gaza. Israel has repeatedly carried out attacks across the territory since the ceasefire came into effect three weeks ago.

Palestinians ‘still believe there is no safety’

Since the early hours of the morning, we have heard endless explosions. These explosions remind us of the explosive-laden vehicles that Israeli forces have used.

Obviously, Israeli forces are destroying more land and more houses in the eastern parts of Gaza, including in the eastern parts of al-Zuwayda and Deir el-Balah, beyond the yellow line [where Israeli forces have agreed to withdraw to].

Also, the attack on Nuseirat yesterday that killed a Palestinian has made Palestinians even more frightened that there could be an air attack at any minute, despite the ceasefire. So, Palestinians still believe there is no safety.

Katz orders Israeli army to destroy Gaza tunnels

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says the Israeli army has been instructed to begin destroying tunnels on the Israeli side of the “yellow line” in Gaza, the part of the Palestinian enclave that remains under Israeli control under the current ceasefire.

In a post on X, Katz said destroying the tunnels was the army’s “central mission”, claiming that 60 percent of them still remained intact. He added that the decision was taken after talks with senior US officials.

So ceasefire means continue destruction?

Israeli army dumping construction waste in Gaza: Report

The Israeli army has been driving large amounts of construction waste and rubble from Israel and dumping it in Gaza, according to videos obtained by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

The videos show trucks leaving Israel near the Kissufim crossing, driving roughly 200 to 300 metres (220 to 330 yards) into Gaza and unloading construction debris along a road before returning empty to Israel. Excavators then reload the same trucks, which repeat the process, according to the report.

The waste consists of construction debris and rubbish left behind by the Israeli army during the war after the establishment of dozens of bases and command posts near the boundary with Gaza.

According to Israeli officers who spoke with Haaretz, field commanders decided to dispose of the waste inside Gaza. One officer said orders were given to allow trucks owned by private Israeli companies to enter Gaza and dump their loads.

Boy loses arm, sister critical after playing with explosive they thought was a toy

Seven-year-old Yahya and his sister Nabila were playing outside in Gaza when they found what looked like a toy, their mother Latifa al-Sharabasi says.

“They found a regular children’s toy – just an ordinary one. The girl was holding it. Then the boy took it and started tapping it with a coin. Suddenly, we heard the sound of an explosion. It went off in their hands,” she said.

Yahya’s right arm was amputated. Nabila remains in intensive care.

Dr Harriet, an emergency doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City who refused to give her last name, told Al Jazeera: “We’re seeing children hurt by devices that look harmless – toys, cans or debris – but they’re actually unexploded bombs.”

“It’s a public health catastrophe waiting to unfold,” the doctor said.

Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basel said about 70,000 tonnes of Israeli explosives remain scattered across Gaza, threatening Palestinian families returning home.

Luke David Irving, who heads the UN’s Mine Action Service in the occupied Palestinian territory, said 328 people have been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance in Gaza since October 2023.

Clearing unexploded ordnances in Gaza a mammoth task, but under way

The scale of unexploded ordnances in Gaza is what will make it more challenging compared to other war zones, says Nicholas Torbet, the Middle East director at the Halo Trust, a United Kingdom-based charity that clears and manages explosives around the world.

“Gaza is essentially one giant city … every single part of it has been hit by ordnance,” Torbet told Al Jazeera, speaking from London.

“In London, there are still unexploded bombs 80 years after the [World War II] conflict, so it’s a long-term problem … Some munitions are designed to linger, but what we’re concerned about in Gaza is ordinance that is expected to explode upon impact but hasn’t.”

Torbet said the issue is slowing down reconstruction in the Palestinian enclave as well.

“What we plan to do, is particularly [when] we’re dealing with unexploded bombs rather than landmines, is embed bomb disposal teams right into the heart of reconstruction,” he said.

Torbet continued: “What we don’t want to do is turn up, draw red boxes and mark off areas that may or may not be cleared for years. What we want to do is really work closely with those communities and make sure our teams are in the right place at the right time.”

The equipment required to remove such explosives is manageable, he added, and can be carried in the backs of cars, as well as by any able-bodied person.

“The best way to dispose of a bomb is to use a small amount of explosives to blow it up,” Torbet explained.

“We do have more advanced machinery … but what we need straight away is that relatively simple equipment and access to explosives, which is starting to happen now.”

New heavy machinery in Gaza to help retrieve bodies of Israeli captives

Some heavy machinery entered Gaza yesterday, but we’re only talking about six trucks. Gaza’s Civil Defence teams have been appealing for this heavy machinery [to help with recovery efforts] since the first day of the war. At least 9,000 Palestinians are still trapped under the rubble.

The new heavy machinery is going to help retrieve the bodies of Israeli captives.

Palestinians say they know there won’t be any developments in the ceasefire until the bodies of all the Israeli captives are returned. They know that this is the main focus and without this happening, the Rafah crossing won’t open and patients won’t leave the Gaza Strip. So, Palestinians want this process to be fast because they want to see the next phase of this ceasefire. They want reconstruction, they want freedom of movement, and they want to see and feel that the ceasefire is going to make it.

Egyptian vehicles enter Gaza to find captives’ remains

Heavy vehicles belonging to an Egyptian team have entered the Gaza Strip to assist with efforts to recover the remains of Israeli captives still in Gaza. The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office approved their entry.

Red Cross assists Hamas in search for Israeli bodies in Gaza

Social media footage shows the arrival of Red Cross vehicles after a meeting with Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, to guide them to a location of a body of an Israeli captive in southern Rafah.

An Israeli government spokesperson said the Red Cross and teams from Egypt are being allowed beyond the ceasefire-set “yellow line” – which is allowing Israel to maintain control of 58 percent of the besieged enclave – to search for the remains of abductees.

التقاء عناصر من المقاومة بفريق الصليب الأحمر للتعرف على مكان جثة الاسرائيلي المفقود في جنوب قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/oPlVIskGTf

— القسطل الإخباري (@AlQastalps) October 26, 2025

‘Insurmountable’ destruction forces Israel to allow body search help

It took two weeks of stalling, but in the end, there is a tacit admission by Israel that the amount of destruction two years of bombardment has created is simply insurmountable to the effort to search for the dead captives.

So now there are teams from Egypt helping look for the bodies of Israeli abductees, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is also helping.

Hamas has given the expected location of the bodies, most of them in Palestinian-controlled areas. But some are beyond that yellow line. That is why we saw a surprising Israeli political approval for ICRC staff and Hamas to enter that area, where the Israeli army is still operating.

This is because of mounting pressure, not just on Hamas from Israel by way of restricting aid entering Gaza, but also on Israel to allow more time for assistance in order to retrieve those bodies and not to use that as an excuse to return to war.

Israeli settlers hack down dozens of Palestinian olive trees: Report

A group of Israeli settlers have cut down dozens of olive trees in the Palestinian village of al-Maniya, near Bethlehem – the latest in a series of near-daily settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, reports the Wafa news agency.

Since the start of this year’s olive harvest season, Israeli settlers have carried out at least 141 attacks on Palestinian olive farmers, including 22 cases of direct assaults on farmers, according to the Ramallah-based Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.


_{A Palestinian man looks at olive trees which he says were damaged by settlers, in Abu Falah near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 6}

Israeli gunfire wounds Palestinian near occupied East Jerusalem

Israeli forces have opened fire and wounded a Palestinian in the town of ar-Ram, north of occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

In a statement, the organisation said its teams treated the young Palestinian, who was shot in his thigh by Israeli forces near a separation wall before he was hospitalised. No other details were immediately available.

Desperate to earn a living, some Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are risking their lives trying to climb the heavily monitored separation wall to work inside Israel.